Forget Me Not
by Phantom Kira
Summary: AU Set in another lifetime. Once upon a time, there was only one world, two kingdoms and Kingdom Hearts. Once upon a time, they had aready met each other. As enemies. Akuroku, Soriku, other side pairings
1. Prologue: History

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**A/N:** Hello everyone. This is my first time writing fanfictions and this is my first story. So I'm a bit nervous about this. This part is just the prologue, I'll probably post Chapter 1 with this.

This story ,is instead of about the afterlife, is about the _beforelife_ and it's set in an alternate universe where there's only one world, instead of many.

Please enjoy the story.

**Prologue: History

* * *

**

The battleground between the Key and the Element kingdoms were stained with the blood and sweat of the warriors who had fought bravely on it.

The two kingdoms had been at odds with each other for centuries now. They had always fought for one reason only.

For Kingdom Hearts.

The beautiful heart-shaped moon filled the sky every night and all who looked up at it were filled with an intense awe for Kingdom Hearts. Some even dropped down onto their knees and began crying. This is no exaggeration. It was rumored that Kingdom Hearts had the power to grant all wishes, dreams and aspirations.

Both kingdoms desired it so much that they fought on endlessly for centuries, calling up the full strength of their kingdoms to fight against the other.

During the years the two kingdoms fought, neither kingdom had won, nor had they lost. It always ended in a draw. Large numbers of each side had been wiped out and were forced to give up or to be completely annihilated.

A year back the Keys had nearly lost, due to the creation of something the Elements had created called "Nobodies".

The Nobodies were man-made soldiers that felt no pain and would continue fighting till they were completely destroyed. They increased the strength of the Element kingdom and wiped out great numbers of the Keys.

The Keys however, refused to give up and fought as ferociously as ever against the Elements The battle had ended the same way, but the Keys had suffered losses far worse than any of their previous battles.

Due to the loss of so many soldiers, theKeys were forced to send youngsters fight against their enemy for the next few battles.

The previous age limit of twenty years went down to eighteen and gradually to sixteen. Younger men and women could be seen in this battle's troops.

King Mickey was saddened to see the young going out to battle to be slaughtered.

This had to end.

* * *

**A/N:** This is the end. Chapter 1 up next! Please leave a review about how you feel about this story. Thanks!

_- Phantom Kira_


	2. War

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**A/N: **Okay, so this is Chapter 1. The real story starts from here.

**Chapt 1: War

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**

The normally empty battleground was filled with people. The army of brightly armored people faced an army of pale creatures, led by people in black cloaks, whose faces were hidden by the hoods over their heads.

Amongst the brightly armored soldiers, two boys, with blond and brown hair sticking out in every direction, were talking to each other in low tones, heads bent in conspiracy.

"Roxas! Sora!" The twins straightened and looked to the front at the sound of their names. Their combat teacher, Leon, was looking at them with frustration. The twins were the best fighters in his class. However, they barely paid attention in class unless it involved whacking others. "Stop talking for once in your lives won't you? This is a _war_, not one of our out-of-classroom lessons."

Leon sighed and closed his eyes as the boys shut their mouths obediently but passed mischievous looks between themselves. He hoped they wouldn't get themselves killed during their first battle. They were only sixteen for goodness sake. The same went for the rest of the class he was teaching. They were all here, amongst the troops, wide-eyed and nervous.

Except for the twins. They were acting as if they did this everyday.

_Please God,_ thought Leon, looking heavenward,_ or whoever is up there. Don't let this bunch of feckless twerps- I mean, er… Young warriors die during their first battle._

Looking back at the twins after his silent prayer, he saw that they were casually summoning their weapons.

Roxas held two beautifully made keyblades, Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Beside him, Sora was holding a keyblade of his own, every bit as beautiful as Roxas's.

Oblivious to the thoughts of his teacher, Roxas looked around to spot familiar faces in the surroundings.

He picked out the nervous faces of their classmates amongst the troops.

In the Fighters section, Hayner was standing behind a soldier who towered over him by head and shoulders, making him look smaller than ever.

Moving on to the Archers, where the majority of the girls were, he caught sight of Kairi and Olette chatting nervously amongst them. Their weapons were nowhere in sight and they look painfully young amongst the hard faced woman around them.

Thinking of girls, he let his gaze wander over to the Mages section. The slim form of Namine stood out amongst the bent forms of the old wizards and witches in the first row. She was the magic prodigy of their class, their Professor Donald had always said. But wasn't she a bit too young to be in the front line?

He let out a soft sigh and spaced out, as he got lost in his thoughts. Who was he to think of such things? After all, he and Sora were in the third row of the Fighters.

Ready to get injured or killed on the battlefield at the age of sixteen.

Although he always put on a cold and indifferent front, it hurt him to know that his class was already going out for war at such a young age. It wasn't fair. They deserved to do what normal sixteen year olds do.

Enjoy the last years of their childhood before going out to the battlefield after proudly graduating from their fighting school.

But instead, here they were, young, half-trained, and ready to suffer injuries or possibly death in the battleground.

A gentle nudge to his side interrupted his thoughts and he looked to his side to stare into soft blue eyes. A gentle smile graced Sora's lips as he looked sadly at Roxas.

"I know what you're thinking." Sora whispered, barely moving his lips as he looked straight in front of him and shifted slightly closer to his twin to whisper in his ear. "Life isn't fair. Just think of it this way: We're doing this for the sake of our kingdom, for the sake of protecting our people, to usher them into a better life. You might have thought that our friends were scared of going into battle, but look again." He tilted his head slightly in the direction of Hayner.

Roxas turned his head to look at him. Although he was hidden in the shadow of the large man in front of him, a look of determination was etched into his features as he gripped his weapon steadily in a pose their teacher taught them.

He looked back at Sora, who merely gave the slightest of shrugs before glancing at the Archers section. Roxas followed his gaze and caught sight of Kairi and Olette.

With their bows in hand, both girls had stopped talking and had adopted a stern look on their faces to match the looks of the woman around them. They blended into the section of archers perfectly.

Without looking back at Sora,he turned his head to look at Namine in the Mages section.

Inspecting her face now, he could have sworn he saw a near evil smirk pass her face as little sparks of lightning danced around her body. He shivered. If he was standing close to her now, he knew that he would have sensed an evil aura being emitted from here.

Tearing his gaze off her, he looked back at his twin next to him. Sora had a straight face on but the corners his mouth was turned up slightly as he murmured softly to Roxas.

"I told you so. They're more than ready. Have more faith in our classmates." Sora moved away from Roxas, back to his original position. "If they're anything like you, they were _born_ ready. We're not called the _class of terror_ for nothing."

Roxas smiled to himself as the sound of a horn echoed through the battleground.

The war has begun.

**_forget-me-not_**

Holding off an attack from above he used his other keyblade to slice through the middle of the Nobody's body, completely severing it into half.

Panting heavily, Roxas wiped his sweat-covered face with a sleeve, frowning at the long cut in his side. Blood trickled slowly out of the wound, dripping onto the dusty battleground. Although the cut was shallow, he had lost quite an amount of blood from that wound and he was feeling a bit dizzy from the blood loss.

The fighting had to stop soon or he would probably faint on the spot and get trampled to death by others. What a way for his first battle to end.

He surveyed his surroundings wearily; showers of arrows were raining down on them, but the only things that got hit by arrows were the enemies. Magic flashed above and around him, striking out large numbers of Nobodies. The unmoving bodies of the Nobodies littered the battlefield, but there were still a large number of moving ones, attacking the Fighters around them.

A flash of brown caught his eye as he spotted his brother slashing at a group of Nobodies a few meters away. Despite his friendly appearance, Sora was not a force to be reckoned with in battle. He would probably destroy the entire group of Nobodies without help.

As he was about to turn away, he saw Sora slump forward and fall to the ground, unconscious. A black-cloaked figure picked him up, slung him over his shoulder and began walking away.

Roxas felt himself go cold as he watched the entire scene, frozen to the spot. Then an explosion of anger, hate and murderous rage seeped into his blood as the initial shock melted away. No way were they going to take his brother away just like that. Over his dead and lifeless body.

Spurred by his feelings, he ran towards the unconscious Sora and his mysterious kidnapper, cutting down anything in his path with a slash of his keyblades. His surroundings faded away as he focused on the figure in front of him.

A few paces behind them, Roxas leapt into the air, meaning to bring down his keyblades on the unprotected shoulder of his enemy. At the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a fireball speeding towards him and growled angrily. He couldn't dodge it in mid-air so he had to block it.

Holding a keyblade to his side, he looked back under him and his eyes widened in shock as he realized that his target had disappeared from under his keyblade and was facing him a few steps in front of him. He could almost see the smirk directed at him under that dark hood.

A familiar clanging of metal against metal rang out from beside him as the fireball collided into his weapon. That wasn't an ordinary fireball; he could see the spinning metal under the fire. The impact of the attack sent him sprawling face down into the ground.

Spitting out dirt in rage, he pushed himself off the ground and wildly looked around for his attacker. He didn't notice the dark figure behind him until an efficient blow to the side of his neck sent him back onto the ground, pain clouding his mind as he blacked out.

* * *

_- Phantom Kira_


	3. Get this memorized: AXEL

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Heck, I don't even own any Kingdom Hearts merchandise.

**Chapt 2: Get this memorized: A-X-E-L**

**

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**

The locks on the heavy wooden door clinked against each other as the door creaked open to a small stone cell. Straw was scattered lightly on the floor and there was a small window on one of the walls.

A cloaked person threw an unconscious Roxas in and locked him in. As his head made contact with the floor, he burst into wakefulness.

"Ouch! Damnit." He sat up and attempted to check if he had a bump on his head, from where he had hit the floor. And failed. His hands were bound tightly in front of him.

Scowling at the pain in his head, he backed up against the wall and sat cross-legged, trying to think through a pounding headache.

The room he was in was unfamiliar. His hands were bound. And he just recalled being knocked out by the enemy. That means…

"Holy crap! I'm a prisoner?" Roxas thought out loud. He thought they only took prisoners _after_ the war was done. Only the people left on the battlefield were taken as prisoners. Even then, prisoners were very rare in this war. "They Elements are getting desperate…" He looked around the prison cell he was in. _It wasn't really considered a cell_, he thought, _more like a very uncomfortable room…_

Footsteps sounded outside his cell. Roxas stood up and positioned himself near the door. If the person was going to check on him, he could try to escape, get the annoying binds around his wrists off, search for Sora, and then find a way out of the Element kingdom…

He was on shaky ground there, but there was no choice. It was the only thing he could think of. The footsteps stopped outside his door. The sound of the locks being unlocked replaced the footsteps.

As the last lock was unlocked, Roxas silently started counting down in his head.

_Three, two, one! GO!_

Roxas launched himself at the doorway, sliding past the hooded person and was about to make a break for it when a black sleeved arm shot out and grabbed the back of his shirt. He felt himself flying backwards and collided into the wall, sliding down the rough stone surface. Painfully. A sharp pain in his side and warm liquid staining his shirt informed him that the wound in his side had reopened and was now bleeding.

He wasn't able to do anything else as the cloaked person stalked in, slamming the door behind him, and pulled Roxas up by the front of his shirt.

"Don't try to escape, _prisoner_." He hissed into Roxas's face, his own face shadowed by his hood. Roxas gave the man the coldest glare he could muster up and swung his bound hands at the man.

The grip on his shirt was gone as the man staggered back, hood falling back to reveal a spiky mass of red hair. Green eyes narrowed in annoyance, the man crossed his arms and smirked at Roxas. Somehow Roxas had managed to remain standing up and was continuing to glare at the redhead.

"Who are you?" Roxas leaned back against the wall and asked him. He didn't have any more energy to get into a fight or escape.

"Get this memorized: A-X-E-L. Axel. Got it, _Roxas_?" Axel answered him, the smirk still on his face.

Roxas continued glaring at him. "How do you know my name?"

"Well, we don't go around picking random people off the battlefield. Imagine how much work that would be."

"That means—"

"That's right, _Roxie_. You and your brother, Sora, were our targets."

Targets. They had planned to capture Sora and him in the first place. But for what? He mustn't let this Axel guy know that he was intimidated. He could be lying.

"What do you want us for? Information? You've failed then, no matter what methods you use, Sora and I will never say anything." Roxas was expecting that they would torture Sora and him for information about the Key kingdom troops. And he knew he would never say anything. Neither would Sora.

They would rather die than betray their kingdom.

Roxas watched warily as Axel moved closer to him and braced himself for the pain he expected to feel. His eyes squeezed shut and his body tensed. There was a hand at his throat now. The pain would follow soon…

Roxas's eyes flew opened in shock. There was a warm pressure on his lips. His shocked blue eyes stared right into amused green ones. He lifted his hands and shoved the redhead away.

As the distance between them increased, Roxas's mind began to comprehend what had just happened. A light blush danced across his face. _He just… kissed me…_

Axel watched Roxas's facial expressions change from shocked to realization and to… Anger.

"You _bastard._" The blond hissed angrily up at him. His blue eyes were like chips of ice in his pale face. There was such frostiness in his words that the temperature in the room seemed to drop. "_How dare you._"

For once in many years, Axel felt scared. He knew if he stayed in this room any longer, the furious blond wouldn't hesitate to kill him. Literally.

"_I will kill you._"

Axel fled from the room.

_**forget-me-not**_

Leaning on a wall several doors away from Roxas's cell, Axel breathed out a sigh of relief. All he wanted was to tease the blond a bit. Now Roxas was sure to kill him the next time they met. He licked his lips nervously. There was a faint taste of the boy's lips on his. It was nice.

Thinking about it, he realized that Roxas wasn't really that bad after all. He was cute when he wasn't going to kill Axel. Especially that faint blush when he realized what had happened. Oh yeah, definitely cute.

The thought of that put him in a good mood. Smiling to himself, he pushed himself off the wall and ambled down the corridor.

_**forget-me-not**_

On the other hand, Sora was lying on his side, staring at the plain ceiling of his cell. He was in the same situation as his brother. Except that he had found a way to get the ropes off his hands.

_Now, what should I do? _He thought as he rolled over and tucked his hands behind his head. A huge yawn interrupted his thoughts. _Hmm. A nap, maybe? _He yawned again. _Yep, a nap would be good._

Closing his eyes, he fell asleep almost immediately.

_**forget-me-not**_

A silver-haired teen strode down the corridors at an impressive pace. His eyes were scanning the doors as he passed. Finally, he stopped at a door, breathing a bit hard from his power-walk to this cell. He unlocked the locks preventing the door from opening and pushed the door open cautiously.

What he saw shocked him. The boy he had captured several hours before was sleeping peacefully on the straw covered floor. His hands were tucked behind his head and the ropes used to bind his hands lay in a neat coil beside his head.

Riku was stunned. But eventually he walked up to the sleeping prisoner and retrieved the rope from the ground. He twined the rope several times around his hands and tied a complicated knot. Throughout this activity, the boy didn't stir.

Riku squatted down beside the brunette and stared at his face. _What's his name again? _He ruffled the brown spikes on his head. It was surprisingly soft. _Sora._

He stood up and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

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**A/N: **Thanks for reading this chapter! Finally, there's interaction between them... 

Ahem.

I'm sorry for publishing this so late... School started and I realized that I hadn't exactly completed my homework... You get the picture.

Once again, thanks for reading this and please leave a review! Reviews make the world go round. No? Well, my world, then.

_-Phantom Kira_


	4. Fairytales aren't real

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Read the disclaimer for chapter 2. Read it? Yeah, still don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts.

**A/N: **I thank the beautiful people who made my world go round:

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

reeby10

flammula

Let's make my world spin faster, 'kay?

**Chapt 3: Fairytales aren't real

* * *

**After Axel had left, Roxas fell back against the wall. The side of his shirt was stained with the reopened wound in his side. The combination of anger and bleeding was making him feel giddy.

Roxas closed his eyes and tried to shut out his memories of the past events and concentrate on his wound. For one, it hurt a lot. Secondly, it was bleeding over his shirt. He smiled to himself slightly; this was almost like one of those fairytale plays he had frequently watched with Sora back at the Key kingdom, where the endings always turned out to be happy in the end.

After finishing that thought, he silently laughed to himself. _Don't be stupid, Roxas, fairytales are just fairytales. They aren't real._ Roxas didn't believe in fairytales. He didn't believe in happy endings. Maybe he had once believed in them in the past, but not now. Not after his parents died in a freak accident. That wasn't a happy ending for his parents.

Sora was the one who believed in fairytales. He believed that when their parents died, they went to heaven and had their happy ending. He loved the classic fairytales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and so on.

The blond sighed softly. He was probably going to bleed to death in this small dingy cell in the Element kingdom. This would prove to Sora that there were no such things as happy endings…

Roxas felt his eyes close as he slid into unconsciousness for a second time. But instead of having total blackness accompanying him this time, he dreamed.

_**forget-me-not**_

_The pair of young twins ran out of the theater, Sora in the lead, Roxas chasing after him._

_Suddenly Sora stopped and turned to Roxas, a bright smile on his face and his hands linked behind his back. "Hey Rox, don't you think that that was one of the best plays we have ever watched?"_

_Roxas was panting slightly from chasing his hyperactive brother. "Yeah it's nice, but something like that would never happen in a hundred years."_

_Sora pouted. "Well Rox, I think you're wrong, such things do happen in real life. It's only that we aren't there to see it!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Roxas walked away from Sora, towards the nearby road. Sora ran after him and grabbed his twin's hand. They held hands as they crossed the road that had killed their parents._

_They continued walking in that manner on their way home._

_When they reached home, Sora yanked open the door and ran in. "Aunt Aerith! Kairi! Namine! Hayner! Olette! Pence! We're home!" His voice rang through the entire orphanage as the said people appeared from wherever they were, smiling at them._

_Aerith, their caretaker appeared from the kitchen door and smiled at both of them pleasantly. "Welcome home, Sora, Roxas. Roxas, would you be so kind to close the door after you've come in?" Roxas nodded and walked in more cautiously than Sora._

"_But Sora, we can't all have happy endings…" He murmured as he reached for the key that hung beside the door._

_**forget-me-not**_

After an hour or so, Axel decided to pay Roxas another visit. He tried to unlock the door as quietly as he could and then cautiously peeked in, ready to duck in case he was ambushed. What he saw inside made him turn pale.

Roxas was slumped against the wall, a small pool of blood beside him. Half his shirt was soaked with blood and the boy seemed unconscious. Axel ran towards him and started shaking him lightly.

"Roxas? Hey kid, wake up." The boy didn't stir. Axel then reached out a hand to the blood-soaked shirt and peeled the ripped part back from Roxas's wound. A long cut along the boy's side was the source of the blood. It wasn't very deep, but it had been left unattended for quite sometime already. It obviously required immediate medical attention.

Axel gently lifted up the boy, his arms supporting the back of his knees and his back, and proceeded to sprint out of the cell and down the corridors, headed towards where all the Organization's members would be.

_**forget-me-not**_

The black-cloaked Elementals were waiting for Axel to show up with the boy, Roxas. Their leader, DiZ, wanted to meet the boy from the Key kingdom and the others were equally, if not more, curious to seeing him.

Suddenly, the door of the room was slammed open and dropped to the ground violently as Axel burst into the room, carrying a blond boy bridal style. He then proceeded to run to the center of the ring of elevated chairs and look up to the highest one.

"DiZ! He's bleeding!" Axel shouted breathlessly at the bandaged man on the chair.

"Well, we obviously can see that. Pray, tell me why is he bleeding?" The man drawled staring back at the panting redhead.

Axel thought back to when he had first captured Roxas on the battlefield. There was a rip and a slight bit of blood on his armor. Then he thought back to when he had met Roxas in the cell. He had thrown the kid against the wall rather roughly. That must have mad his wound worst.

"Er… he was already injured on the battleground." Axel replied after sorting out what he should say. He decided to leave out the part about whatever had happened in the cell.

DiZ was not fooled. "And…" He prodded, his uncovered eye narrowing at Axel.

_Damn_, thought Axel. "And er… I… kinda threw him against the wall in his cell." One of the cloaked Elementals sniggered while the rest shifted slightly in their seats. Axel glared at the one who had sniggered briefly. _Demyx_, he thought murderously.

"Ah." Axel turned his head back to the man in front of him. "So, Axel. You aggravated his wound although it was my orders _not to harm him in any way._"

"I didn't mean to—"

"Silence." Axel shut up. "Listen to my orders now and carry them out_. Do not_ disobey me now. I called you here to tell you what to do with Roxas. But since this happened… I guess there has to be a change in plans. Axel." Axel stood at attention, still carrying Roxas.

"Here are your orders…"

_**forget-me-not**_

Axel exited the room several minutes later, having mixed feelings at his orders. He was to look after Roxas during his time in the Element kingdom. The good part was that he found the boy quite interesting, and all. The bad part was that Roxas would probably attempt to murder him after _that incident_ in his cell.

He groaned, burying his face in his hands. He had left Roxas in that room, DiZ had said that he would get Roxas the medical attention he required.

Now Axel was on his way to his room; Roxas would be rooming with him. On his way there, he saw a silver haired boy running in the opposite direction, towing a brown-haired boy behind him. Axel stopped in front of him, blocking his way.

"Hey Riku! Why are you in such a hurry? And is that…?"

"Yeah, it's the other captive, Sora. And I'm late for a meeting with DiZ because I let this guy oversleep!" Riku gestured towards the boy behind him, who was yawning and rubbing his eyes. His hands weren't bound.

"Hey wait. You let him oversleep and untied him? You know you aren't supposed to let your captive go free—"

"He untied it himself! Now if you would excuse me…" Riku sidestepped Axel and ran off, still dragging Sora behind him.

Axel stared at the backs of the two boys until they disappeared down the corridor. Shrugging to himself, he slowly made his way back to his room.

_**forget-me-not**_

Roxas slowly opened his eyes and closed them again. He was awake, but wasn't ready to acknowledge that yet. His mind slowly took in details for him. He was on a bed, a soft, comfortable one. The wound on his side was throbbing slightly, but wasn't causing any intense pain and there was a bandage wrapped around it. His hands were untied and were laid loosely at his sides. Yep, everything seemed to be in order. Time to wake up.

He opened his eyes for a second time and slowly sat up. There was someone to his left, he turned his head his eyes met familiar emerald ones. Roxas jerked his head back and hissed, "_You._" He swung his fist at the Axel, who ducked.

"_I will really kill you this time._"

Axel gulped as he ducked another fist aimed towards him. He blocked the next punch at him, holding onto the teen's hand. "Roxas, calm down. You're injured, you shouldn't be—" He broke off as he grabbed Roxas's other hand as it headed towards him. "Fighting me."

Roxas scowled and struggled against the older teen's grip on his hands. "Let go of me, Axel." Axel's mouth twisted into a smirk.

"I'm _so flattered_. You actually remembered my name, Roxie." Roxas kicked his knee, causing Axel to lose his balance and fall on the boy. Axel held up his hands to break his fall and ended up pinning Roxas to the bed. It was a really awkward situation to be in.

"So." Axel's face was just inches away from Roxas's. "Care to tell me why you were so mad about me kissing you." Roxas felt Axel's breath on his face and turned his face away, blushing slightly.

"Nope."

"Then, I'll kiss you again." Axel whispered into the boy's ear.

"No!" Roxas snapped his head back, facing Axel. His blue eyes met Axel's green ones and looked away again, the blush on his face darkening slightly. "That… was… my first kiss."

Axel stared at him and smirked. _He really is cute,_ he thought and let go of Roxas's hands. He propped himself up and got off the bed staring down at the stunned blond still lying on the bed. "You're cute."

Roxas shot back up into sitting position, wincing from the sharp pain he felt in his side. "I. Am. Not. Cute." He gave Axel an icy glare. Axel chuckled, suddenly not afraid of whether he was going to get killed by him or not.

He ruffled the unruly blond spikes on Roxas's head. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, cutie." He jumped back as Roxas lunged forward, hands curled into fists. _We are going to have soo much fun together, Roxie.

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_**A/N: **Reviews are always appreciated! And my updates will be kinda slow, okay? So bear with it. Maybe if there are more reviews, i would be more hyped up to update, -hint, hint- 

_- Phantom Kira_


	5. Servant clothes and fairytale books

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: No Kingdom Hearts products are mine. –sniff-

**A/N: **These people motivated me to update faster:

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

Triptic

**Chapt 4: Servant clothes and fairytale books

* * *

**

"Pervert."

"Shut up, kid."

"That makes you a pedophile, you know?"

"… Damn you."

Roxas and Axel had been trading insults since they entered the storage room. DiZ's plan was to disguise Roxas as Axel's servant to avoid any hostility from the people of the Element kingdom. Therefore, they were currently searching for servants' clothing that was of Roxas's size.

Apparently, Roxas was using any opportunity he could to throw insults at Axel. He was _not_ happy with the arrangement, but he had to survive before he could find a way to escape from the Element kingdom. Furthermore, he hadn't managed to locate Sora yet and he was getting quite worried for his twin brother.

Axel, on the other hand was quite happy with the arrangement. He had always wanted a servant to boss around. He had seen the others, who had servants assigned to them, constantly ordering their servants around. It looked like fun. Especially if your servant was a cute little blond boy from the enemy kingdom. Who hated your guts. It was _definitely_ going to be fun.

Immersed in his thoughts, he didn't see a pile of white and black clothing go sailing through the air until it fell on his head.

"What?" He spluttered and pulled the clothes off him. Roxas glared at him from the opposite side of the room.

"_I said_ are these the clothes that we're are looking for?" The blond crossed his arms, wincing slightly as he tugged on his injury. He turned around muttering to the wall.

Axel caught words like, "deaf", "idiot", "Axel" coming from Roxas, before reaching his hands up to untangle the clothes from the flaming red spikes on his head. Recognizing the style and color, he checked the size before tossing it back to Roxas, hoping to nail the unsuspecting blond on his head. No such luck. Roxas turned around and caught the clothes deftly in one hand, the other hand still tucked near his bandaged chest.

"Thanks." Roxas smirked at Axel before ducking behind the changing screen to get changed.

Grumbling under his breath, Axel turned around with his back facing the screen. His jaw dropped slightly, the place was a total mess. DiZ would _kill_ him if he found out that they had made such a mess out of the castle's storage room. He began shoving stuff back into boxes and cupboards.

"Axel." Axel turned around at the sound of his name. He blinked at the fully dressed blond stepping out from behind the screen. The clothes looked to be a size bigger than the boy's size but somehow, the blond still looked… _good_.

The white long-sleeved shirt fit, but the black sleeveless jacket was mid-thigh length. The hem of the formal black pants was lightly grazing the ground and there was a black belt securing it to the boy's hips with another white one looped over it just for decoration.

Axel whistled. The clothes looked as if they were made for the blond. Even if they were servant clothes. Scowling slightly, Roxas walked over to him.

"The jacket and the pants are a bit too big. Is there another size?" He asked plucking the black material of the jacket and the pants.

Axel shrugged in reply. "Smallest size, kid." He silently laughed at the disgruntled look on Roxas's face and added, "But you look good."

"Huh. Really." Roxas inwardly sighed. He didn't want to look like an undersized boy in big clothes. "By the way, why is there a hood on the jacket?"

"For obvious reasons. To shelter you from the rain, to hide your identity from strangers, etc… Go figure. I'm sure you're smart enough, Roxie."

"Don't call me that!"

_**forget-me-not**_

In another storage room, Sora and Riku were looking for the clothes in a more orderly manner. The captive and his guard had managed to get along with each other unlike the other pair.

_Sora's amazingly calm about being captured and disguising as my servant,_ Riku thought as he lifted the lid of an ancient looking box.

"Is this it, Riku?" The said brunette tapped his shoulder lightly. Riku took the clothes and inspected it. It was the clothes they were looking for.

"Yeah." He shoved the clothes back into Sora's arms, trying to sound like the stoic guard he was supposed to be. Not intimidated by the monotonous tone, Sora happily skipped behind the changing screen.

As Sora disappeared behind the screen, Riku sat on the floor, surveying the area around him. It was considerably neat, seeing how Sora and he put back everything the way it was after unpacking it. The emotionless mask slid off his face and was replaced by a tired and weary look. It was difficult to stay emotionless when you're with a hyperactive brunette, who doesn't care about being in captivity.

Riku tiredly rubbed his face with his hands. He was only seventeen and he was already working like a twenty year old, where had all those days of youth gone?

"Riku!" A cheerful Sora bounced out from behind the screen. Riku was stunned. Sora looked…

"Sora."

"Yeah?"

"You're have your shirt on backwards."

**_forget-me-not_**

Axel walked briskly down the corridor, holding a hand to his left eye. Roxas followed behind him, looking insufferably smug. Silence floated in the air between the two.

They stopped in front of a white door with the words "VIII" scorched onto the front door. Axel fumbled with the pockets of his coat, searching for his key. Without taking his hand away from his eye, he swiftly unlocked the door and pushed the door open.

"In." He growled to the boy behind him. Roxas entered the room, smug grin still plastered on his face. Axel went in after Roxas, closing the door behind him.

Roxas looked around the room in slight fascination. The room was entirely white, but there were scorch marks all over the walls and ceiling, appearing at totally random places, yet, still looking like a design of some sort. Axel had gone through another door, which, Roxas assumed, led to the bathroom.

"For a kid, you sure hit hard." A hooded person walked through the door from which Axel had disappeared into. Roxas's grin widened as he recognized the voice.

"Don't tell me it's so serious that you have to hide it, Axel." The blond mocked, ignoring the insult directed at him. Axel scowled at the blond from under his hood and pulled the hood back from his head. A large purple bruise was beginning to form around his left eye. Seeing the bruise, Roxas couldn't hold back anymore. He laughed.

Roxas collapsed to the floor, laughing so hard that he felt that his side was going to split open again. Gasping for breath, he looked up Axel's face again before howling with laughter once more.

Axel pointedly ignored the laughing blond and walked back into the bathroom, in a bid to escape with part of his dignity intact. How did he manage to let the younger boy hit him in the first place? He must be getting soft in his old age. Then he snorted to himself. Old age? He was only _eighteen_ for goodness sake.

_It was luck_, Axel decided, _definitely luck. _One of the wild punches Roxas had thrown at him must have accidentally caught the outside of his eye. Sheer luck.

Contented with that conclusion, the redhead walked back into the room to see Roxas looking through the small bookcase by the window. Yes, Axel did read, just not much. The blond was looking at the thickest book in his shelf. A book of fairytales.

Roxas had a sad expression on his face as he leafed through the book, skimming through the words and glancing at the pictures. At the speed he went, he finished the book quickly, and then returned the thick book back into the gap between the books.

"Fairytales, Roxas?" Axel decided to make his presence known in the room. The said blond jumped slightly at the sound of his voice but recovered quickly.

"That was the thickest book there and probably the most difficult book in your bookshelf, judging from your level of knowledge."

Axel smirked at the comment and walked over to the bookshelf, pulling out a book slightly thinner then the fairytale book. He blew off the dust and handed the book to Roxas.

"History of the Element kingdom. I'll lend it to you, that is, _if_ you can read it." Roxas ignored the insult directed at him and idly flipped through the book. He loved to read.

Clouds of dust puffed up from the old book as he turned the pages, making him cough. "The book is really dusty." He said in between coughs.

"Well… It _is_ your job now." Axel replied, eyeing Roxas evilly, reminding him of his new job. Roxas snapped the book shut and slammed the book down onto a nearby table, annoyed at the reminder. He crossed his arms and gave Axel an icy look.

"Fine. What do I do now?"

* * *

**A/N:** Kyuu I'm done here. The next update might take quite a while, judging from my schedule. I've got netball matches, tests and projects to juggle. (I'm one busy girl)

Well.

Since you're here, just leave a review for me. Go on, make my day. Or week. Or month. (Depends on your review)

_-Phantom Kira_


	6. It's all about Sora

**A/N: **I AM still ALIVE! Rejoice, beautiful people, for Kira lives. (to die another day)

Firstly, I apologize for taking so long to update. My school is apparently trying to kill us. I have _six_ bloody projects to complete and my entire last week consisted of netball training and matches. I swear they're trying to murder us.

Next, although I only received one review for the previous chapter, it cheered me up for quite some time. Thank you for supporting me all this while:

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

However... I still want more reviews... My world is revolving reeeally slowly now. And the slower it revolves, the slower I update. 

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Don't talk about that. I already know.

**Chapt 5: It's all about Sora

* * *

**_In a Key kingdom hospital room…_

A small group of teenagers sat or stood around a hospital bed. A boy lay on the bed, wrapped in bandagers but awake, mouth set in a grim streak. All the teenagers around him had the same expressions on their faces.

"Hayner, are you sure that Sora and Roxas were taken by the enemy?" A red haired girl who was sitting on a chair beside his bed asked for the tenth time.

The blond boy on the bed nodded his head stiffly. "Yeah. I'm sure I saw that before I got knocked out."

The girl clenched her fists tightly. "Damn those idiots… They must have been playing around…"

"Kairi, calm down." The blond girl sitting on the edge of Hayner's bed took Kairi's clenched fists, trying to make her loosen them.

"How can we relax, Namine? Two of us were taken away. We don't even know if they're still…" Kairi buried her face into her hands.

"Kairi's got a point there. What if they're…" Another red haired girl chimed in. The word hung unspoken in the air. "The Fighters suffered the worse, just look at Hayner."

"Enough, Olette. I'm not _that _badly injured. And those two are much better fighters than me. They'll survive…"

"They won't die." Namine continued with determination.

**_forget-me-not_**

_Somewhere in the eastern - or western or is it northern? – part of the castle…_

Sora was lost. He had absolutely no idea where he was. Every turn he took seemed to lead to another whitewashed corridor.

Well, he did see a hooded person on his way, but he/she didn't seem too friendly.

Just as he was ready to cry out after turning into yet another white corridor, he saw a white door with the words "VIII" on it. Sora decided that asking for directions was probably better than wandering around in the huge castle.

He took a deep breath and held up a hand, ready to knock on the door.

**_forget-me-not_**

Roxas was lying down on his stomach on the bed, a book in front of him. The history of the Element kingdom was quite… fascinating. On the other side of the room, Axel was sitting on the table, scowling at the dusty bookshelf in front of him.

"It's your _job_." The redhead burst out randomly, waving his hands at Roxas.

Roxas flipped a page idly before looking up and raising an eyebrow in return. "It's your _room_. And it is not my job. This servant thing is just a disguise, idiot." He returned his attention to the book in front of him.

Axel let his gaze settle on a small black smear on the side of the bookshelf and the spider web next to it. _We're never going to get anywhere if we keep arguing._ He blew a stray lock of hair out of his eyes, giving a quick glance at Roxas.

"Stop looking at me, pervert." Roxas said, eyes still on the book, to Axel. _Yeesh, does the kid have sixth sense or something…_

Just then, there was a soft knock on the door. Two pairs of eyes looked towards the door. The pair of blue eyes looked back at the book he was reading while the other pair of green eyes stared at the door, shocked. Nobody ever knocked on the door when they came to visit him. They usually just… let themselves in. Another knock sounded from the door, louder this time.

"Just get the damn door already." A slightly annoyed voice came from the bed. Axel recovered from the shock, went over and opened the door. He found himself looking down at a boy that looked almost exactly like Roxas. Except for the hair.

"Excuse me—"

"Roxas?!"

The boy looked at him quizzically, looking into the room, replying, "No, I'm not Roxas. Roxas is over there—" He did a double-take at the blond calmly reading a book on the bed. "What the hell?! Roxas!" He pushed past the stunned redhead and launched himself at the other boy with a gleeful look on his face.

Roxas let out an enraged splutter as he felt a weight suddenly jump on him. He caught sight of spiky brown hair as a spike poked him in the eye.

"Ow! Sora! What the heck are you doing here? Ow! Stop poking me in the eye with your damn spikes." Within seconds, the blond was effectively buried into the mattress as the brunette happily bounced on him.

Ignoring whatever complaints Roxas had just voiced out, Sora began squeezing the remaining life out of the other boy with what was his version of a "hug".

"Ohmygod! Roxasroxasroxas! Wherethehellhaveyoubeen? IthoughtthatIwastheonlyonehere!" Sora began babbling loudly into his ear. With his face buried into the mattress, only a muffled grunt could be heard from Roxas. "Whatizzhat? SpeaklouderRoxs!" Sora continued jumping on him.

Half-amused and half-worried for Roxas's life, Axel strode over to the two boys and pulled the hyperactive one off the half-dead one.

With the brunette standing on the floor, out of harming way, Axel bent over Roxas, checking to see if he was still alive. "Hey Roxie, still alive down there?" He prodded the boy's shoulder tentatively with a finger. No response. He then turned to Sora, with a forced serious look on his face. "Now look what you've done, kid, you killed him. Who are you anyway?"

Sora grinned back at him, looking like a little kid of four. "I'm So-ra! And Rox ain't dead yet." To prove his point, he jumped back on Roxas and jumped back off quickly. Half a second later, the blond that Axel had assumed was successfully embedded into the bed, shot right up, glaring at his source of pain.

"Sora."

"Ye-s?"

"You're so dead, bro." With that declaration, Roxas jumped onto Sora with the same hyperness that Sora had displayed a while before. After a few seconds of struggling, Sora was lying on his stomach on the floor with Roxas sitting on his back.

"Fine. You win, Rox! Now, get off me! You're _heavy_." Roxas smacked him on the head for the last remark before standing up, a grin on his face. Sora breathed a sigh of relief and remembered that there was someone else in the room. "Hey Rox, who's that?"

"That" was apparently a stunned redhead gaping at them. He had never seen Roxas that hyper before. Or happy.

"That?" Roxas looked in the direction that Sora was staring at and spotted what he was referring to. "Oh. _That?_ That is Axel. Redheaded idiot of the Elemental kingdom."

Finally recovering from his shock, Axel shook his head and looked carefully at Sora. Wasn't that…?

"Sora?" Axel searched his memory for his name. "Aren't you supposed to be with Riku?"

_**forget-me-not**_

"Have you seen a brown haired boy with blue eyes, about this tall?" Riku asked a young Elemental maid who was passing by. The Elemental widened her eyes at the sight of him, a member of the all-important Organization, shook her head frantically before scurrying off, throwing a glance over her shoulder at him to make sure he was not going to do anything to her.

Riku sighed, eyes following the departing back of the maid. The people who worked in the castle were obviously terrified of Organization members, even if that girl had seen Sora, she would be too scared to speak up. He'll never find Sora this way.

His footsteps echoed back at him as he walked through the deserted hallway. He shouldn't have let Sora go on his own, back to the storage room. Although he had said that he had remembered the way from Riku's room to the storage room, he had apparently got lost, seeing that he was gone for an hour.

Why on earth did he let Sora go off on his own?

He was startled out of his thoughts as someone behind him shouted his name.

"Riku!" A blond guy ran up to him, shouting his name. "This the third time I called you! Didn't you hear me?"

"Sorry, Demyx, I was… thinking." The said blond crossed his arms and grinned at Riku.

"I'm surprised that you even have a brain to think." Riku scowled at him. Demyx raised his hands in mock surrender. "Fine. Now, I heard you ask about a certain brown haired, blue eyed boy, about this tall?" He mimicked Riku's actions when he was talking to the maid.

Riku nodded. "Yeah. Have you seen him about?" He asked half-heartedly. There was no way Demyx could have seen Sora—

"Yup!" Riku blinked. Twice. Then he grabbed the blond by the shoulders, shaking him hard.

"Seriously?!"

"Y-yeah." Demyx replied, thrown off by the other's enthusiasm. "He was heading off towards Axel's room."

Riku stopped his shaking and let go, dropping Demyx. "No. Way."

Demyx stood back up, rubbing his back. "Yeah. I can't believe you just dropped me like that." He looked around for Riku. The other male was gone.

_**forget-me-not**_

This was what was running around in Riku's head at that moment as he headed towards Axel's room:

_Damnit. It was DiZ's orders not to let the two meet yet, but now Sora has wandered off. Towards Axel's room. Where Roxas is. If both of them meet, that will be against orders. DiZ is so going to kill me. Furthermore, I can't leave Sora with Axel. Axel's a freaking pervert for god's sake. He's already attempted to harass Roxas. What's he going to do to another cute boy like Sora—_

Riku stopped in mid-run. And backtracked in his thoughts. Did he just think that Sora was cute? And was he actually worried about that boy's safety? Riku face palmed himself repeatedly. No, he did not. He did not. He did not.

Therefore, what was running around in his head as headed towards Axel's room became this:

_I did not just think that Sora is cute. I did not just think that Sora is cute. __I did not just think that Sora is cute. I did not just think that Sora is cute. __I did not just think that Sora is cute. I did not just think that Sora is cute.

* * *

_**A/N:** Riku's in denial, yes he is. For now, it seems that the Soriku part of the story is developing faster... Or is it?

_-Phantom Kira_


	7. Accidents happen

**A/N:** I'm so sorry! I know I said that I would update faster if more people reviewed (and they/you did!), but things happened. My baby sister was hospitalized and then things just got... Urgh! for me.

These are they people who really made me happy during that time:

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

Sarie Bear

reeby10

I really thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. Keep the reviews coming!

Disclaimer: This is already the sixth chapter, you should know by now.

**Forget Me Not**

**Chapt 6: Accidents happen

* * *

**

Axel sat few meters away from the two boys sitting on the bed, who were chatting excitedly. _Twins huh?_ He thought as he studied their faces from the corner of his eye. They did look like each other, with the exception of their hair, but there was something, else, that differentiated them from each other.

Suddenly his door burst open and a very out-of-breath silver teen practically flew into his room. Riku scanned through the room, eyes picking out the stunned brunette sitting on the bed with an equally stunned blond. Seeing the shocked looks on everybody's' faces, he quickly smoothed down his hair into some sort of order and schooled his facial expression into an emotionless mask.

"Sora." He then began, trying to keep his voice as monotonous as possible. As soon as he said Sora's name, the whole room came to life again. Axel walked over to his door, looking mournfully at it as it crashed to floor loudly after Riku's impact of opening it.

The blond, who Riku presumed was Roxas, immediately hooked an arm over his brother's neck protectively and stared at Riku, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Who are you— What?!" Roxas was interrupted as he was pulled off the bed and thrown over a shoulder. "Axel!" In a few seconds he was carried over to the hastily fixed door, thrashing all the way, away from Riku and Sora.

Axel dropped the blond down onto the floor. "C'mon, just leave them alone for awhile, Riku's like me—"

"What? An idiot?"

"No, he's not an idiot, though I wonder about that sometimes, and neither am I. He's looking after Sora."

"Well, that's what they all say…"

On the other side of the room, Sora and Riku were staring at each other; one gaze curious, and the other's stare slightly panicky.

"You got lost." Riku stated. _Well, he obviously got lost, but how the hell did he end up in Axel's room?!_

"Er… Yeah." Sora replied. _What's he doing here?_

"…" _If I start questioning him now about what happened to him, he's going to wonder why am I so concerned about him and then he'll be all friendly then, his purpose of coming here is going to be lost…_

"…" _Gee, he sure is speaking less than usual now._

"I wonder why I even gave them space to speak to each other when they aren't even saying a word?" Axel leaned cautiously against the door, resting a foot in Roxas's lap.

"Yeah…" Roxas, sitting cross-legged beside him, knocked his leg away, features settling in the usual scowl. He wasn't happy about letting his twin brother talk to a stranger, but he had to respect his brother's privacy, as how Axel put it.

Axel glanced down and ruffled the spikes on the disgruntled blond's head. "Aww… Roxy, you're all jealous—"

The door that Axel was leaning on suddenly collapsed on him, causing him to fall. Onto Roxas.

"HEEEEEYYYY AXEL!! GUESS WHAT— Whoa. I didn't know you both already got this far. Sorry for interrupting—" Demyx burst in, screaming the place down, and immediately caught sight of the two on the ground.

When the door crashed onto him, Axel accidentally pushed Roxas down, his hand tangling in the spikes that he was ruffling a few seconds ago. Roxas had barely one second to register what was happening before lips crashed down on his own. Painfully.

On the bed, Sora's eyes widened at the sight of his brother under the redhead, lips locked in a kiss. "Roxas…"

Feeling a strong sense of Déjà vu, Axel quickly sat up, breaking the accidental kiss between them and ducked as a hastily summoned keyblade sliced the air where his head had been half a second ago.

A blush covering his face, Roxas threw Axel off him and slammed the keyblade half a centimeter away from where the stunned redhead's face had been a second ago before he rolled to the side. With his keyblade embedded in the wooden surface of the room, Roxas stared down as coldly as he could at Axel as another keyblade began to appear in his other hand.

"_You asked for it."_

Everyone fled from the room, taking the initiative to drag the redheaded Elemental on the floor behind them as they left.

_**forget-me-not**_

"Gods above, is he always that scary?" Axel panted after running away from his own room.

"A few times in the past, yeah. It's been some time since he's been in his _scary mode_. You seem to have a knack for bringing it out." Sora replied, breathing hard from sprinting after the lot of them.

"Why thank you."

Demyx and Riku whacked his head simultaneously.

"You idiot, just shut up won't you. You'll live a longer life that way." Riku told Axel, half-grinning at Demyx.

"Yeah, I swear we could have died there and then." Demyx dramatically clutched his heart, the back of his other hand rested on his forehead.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Says the one that caused it." Axel retorted. "In the first place, what did you come to my room for, drama queen?"

Demyx froze. "Oh… crap. DiZ wanted to see you… like five minutes ago."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Axel moaned in distress. "If I get turned into a Dusk, you're coming with me." With that, he grabbed Demyx by the hood and broke out in a sprint down the white corridors.

Riku laughed at the sight of his two friends' retreating backs, unaware of the pair of blue eyes fixed on him. Finally he remembered that there was someone else with him and turned to Sora, snapping back into his role as the stoic guard.

"Sora—"

"So, you are human somewhere beneath that fake mask of yours." Sora murmured, more to himself than Riku. "You. Laughed. You were _happy_. Or should I say you _showed_ that you were _happy_."

Riku turned away from Sora. "That was nothing. You didn't see it."

A quiet voice reached his ears. "Why are you afraid of people seeing your true emotions? Or is it just me?" There was silence. Then came a softer voice from Sora. "Why can't we be friends?"

A small, warm hand found Riku's, barely having to time to close around it before it was knocked away, the person who knocked it away walking away, leaving Sora standing by himself in the middle of the white corridors.

_**forget-me-not**_

The two keyblades he was holding faded out as he slumped against the wall, trying to regain some control of himself. Roxas kicked the fallen door, he was annoyed, but more at himself than at Axel. It had been quite some time since he exploded like that. Only a few people could make him that angry.

_Angry or embarrassed?_ A small voice inside his head prompted. Roxas clapped his hands to his burning cheeks as the recent memory sprang up in his head.

_He barely had time to respond as Axel fell on him, the hand tangled in his hair pulling his head down as the rest of his body followed. Then, his lips crashed down on Roxas's._

_Roxas felt his heartbeat quicken and his face heat up. It was the second time now. He should be beating Axel up into a bloody mess now, but his arms wouldn't move. His eyelids lowered slightly and he unconsciously responded to the accidental kiss._

_When Axel broke the kiss, Roxas suddenly realized what had just happened. His cheeks flared with more color as he realized what he had just done. At that moment, his body acted on instinct, summoning up Oblivion and swinging it at Axel._

Roxas turned to face the wall and started knocking his head repeatedly on its hard surface. "Idiot. Idiot. Idiot…"

**_forget-me-not_**

Stopping in front of the door that Demyx had pointed out, Axel let himself and Demyx rest for half a second before politely knocking on the door. Crashing down the door down would be the one of the last things Axel would do now.

"Come in." Came a commanding voice from inside, with a just slight trace of amusement in it. But the two Elementals outside the room were too tense to notice it.

"Ah, Axel. It seems that you have finally decided to show up after making me wait for seven minutes." DiZ greeted them as they entered the room. "And it seems that Demyx has accompanied you. Best friends, are we? Or is he the reason for your delayed arrival?"

Voice rising in panic, Demyx blurted out, "It was the captive, sir."

"Guest. Roxas is our guest, not captive, Demyx. What trouble did you have with him?" He addressed the redhead who was kicking Demyx as subtly as he could manage. "I hope you're not romancing him, Axel."

Axel looked up at the sound of his name and answering a bit too overly enthusiastically. "Of course not!"

DiZ raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. "Remember why is he here Axel." He said, casual tone switching to serious tone. "He and Sora are here for one purpose only. They're our only chance of surviving. We have to make this work, don't mess it up."

* * *

**A/N:** I'll try my best to get te next one up asap, but it won't be easy.

Firstly, I need to look after my baby sister, my parents are worn out.

Secondly, remember the netball matches I mentioned in the previous chapters? Yeah, we got into the second round. -cheers- So that means more netball matches and trainings.

And lastly... EXAMS. One of my most hated things. Yes, they're starting this month.

In conclusion, I'm doomed. Give me support to make it through this month!! -cough, review, cough-

_-Phantom Kira_


	8. Plans

**A/N:** My brain, muscles and throat are seriously messed up. It's a miracle that this chapter came out today.

I had my math test today. No comment on that.

Then we had a netball match today, which we lost. I was screaming like Linkin Park. No really, I'm serious.

I love you guys:

Sarie Bear

aarnikotka

coolmegan123

reeby10

Indigo Pheonix

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I'd probably be excused from taking exams… I think…

**Chapt 7: Plans

* * *

**

"The distance between here and there is… Sora and I will never make it there on foot without getting caught…" Seated cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the room, Roxas was surrounded by books and papers, planning his escape route or rather, mumbling parts of it out loud.

Roxas yawned, stretching his arms up. It was his second day in the Element kingdom and he had to find a way to get Sora and him back to their own kingdom.

His initial plan was to sneak out of the castle at night and make a good distance away before they discovered they were gone. However, after calculating the distance between the Element and Key kingdom, he decided to change his plan.

Spread out around him was maps of the world, half-devised escape routes, information books about the Element kingdom and a slightly battered copy of the History of the Element kingdom that Axel had lent to him. He had most of the escape route planned; now all he needed was a map of the castle and some sort of transport across the field that separated the two kingdoms.

Axel was out on a "mission" as he had called it, saying that he won't be back till dark. Which left Roxas plenty of time to plan an ideal escape route and inform Sora. A handwritten map to his left showed the way to Riku's room, which was where Sora was staying.

Looking at the mess around him, Roxas felt his head ache slightly. He stacked up the books and papers and dropped it onto the nearby desk. The floor was now empty except for the small messy handwritten map.

Roxas decided it was time to visit Sora.

_**forget-me-not**_

It was stifling hot outside in the cursedly hot sun. And it didn't help that Axel was dressed in his black Organization outfit with the hood up. Damn the rules. Having the hood up every time one was on a mission was ridiculous. Furthermore, he had been out here for at least five hours and had the rest of the day to go. It would be a miracle if he didn't faint from the heat.

His current mission: Patrolling the borders of their kingdom, which hadn't been invaded since god knows when. He swore that DiZ was doing this to get him away from Roxas.

Silently fuming under his hood, he didn't notice a girl, dressed in black, leap over the city's wall and land softly on the ground until she was past him. A key chain hung on her waist glinted light into his eyes, which made him blink and look up.

Alerted of an outsider, Axel instinctively threw a chakram at her; close enough to startle her into halting. When she stopped moving, he had already got close enough to knock her down and hold the other chakram to her neck.

"Alright, who are you and what are you doing here?" He growled down at her. She glared back defiantly, her childish face spoiling the look. She stuck out her tongue at him. He pressed the weapon down harder, making a thin line of blood ooze out from a new cut.

"Not telling." She was dressed like a ninja with her hair cut short. A key shaped key chain was attached to her belt. Axel bent down and picked it up. The name "_Yuffie_" was engraved on the metal. He recognized the key chain as a citizen of the Key kingdom; he'd seen Roxas carry one when he was captured.

"Yuffie. Weird name, kiddo." He remarked, feeling a little less irritated at having someone to taunt. Drops of perspiration dripped into his eyes and he wiped them away with a swipe of his sleeve. During this distraction, he didn't notice Yuffie grab something from her pocket. When he looked back again, she grinned at him, making a peace sign with her free hand.

"Say cheese!" She threw something at him, a burst of light temporarily blinding him. Opening his eyes again, she was gone. There was an envelope on the ground where she had been.

A small slip of paper was stuck onto it:

PRIVATE AND CONFEDENTIAL. (Give this to someone called DiZ)

_Love, Yuffie_

A smiley face was drawn beside the signature.

Axel picked up the letter, tucking it into his jacket pocket. His other hand still held the girl's key chain. It went into his pocket as well.

The letter was addressed to DiZ, so he had to go back to the castle. Perfect excuse for getting out of the damn sun.

_**forget-me-not**_

The stack of books and papers that had been previously sitting on Axel's desk was now spread out on the floor of Riku's room. There was a new addition to the mess, a neatly drawn map of the entire castle.

Roxas held it before him, carefully inspecting it. "I still can't believe Riku drew this." He told his brother.

"He did!" Sora leaned against Roxas. They were sitting back-to-back. "He drew it after I got lost for the… fifth time."

"Well, it's good." Roxas critically compared it to the messily drawn map done by Sora. "Compared to yours, anyway."

"I choose to ignore that last statement you made."

"Whatever you want. Now," Roxas turned to face Sora. "We have one problem solved. Next one: How do we cross the distance between the two kingdoms?"

"Teleport?" Sora suggested.

Roxas whacked the top of Sora's head. "Be serious, won't you."

"No, I'm serious, Rox." Sora sat up straight, rubbing the injured part of his head. "I saw Riku disappear into a large portal thingie when he left for his 'mission'."

Roxas flapped a hand dismissively at him. "Impossible. Teleporting isn't possible now. It only appears in stories." _Fairytale stories._

"No, no! I asked Demyx how it worked and he said it _was _teleporting. They use some sort of dark material to create links to other places so that they can travel easier."

"Yeah, but it's _them_. Not us, Sora. We can't create stuff like that. We just have to find another way."

"Okay…" Sora looked out of the window, feeling disappointed. The sun was setting, casting an orangey ray of light onto the floor. _Sunset…_ Sora thought absently, then he froze. "Oh damn… Roxas!"

Roxas looked up from the map he was inspecting. "Yeah?"

"Riku should be coming back now! And—"

"I'm not supposed to be here now!" Roxas completed his sentence, packing up the scattered papers and books that he had brought along.

"Yes!" Sora shouted at him, shoving papers into his brothers overloaded arms. "He said that we weren't supposed to meet again, if not he'll throw us back into those cell rooms again and then we won't be able to see each other again." Clearing the last paper from the floor he opened the door and kicked Roxas into the white hallway. "Now go!"

"I'm gone! I'm gone!" Roxas staggered from the push and ran away from the door as it closed behind him.

He turned at a corner and caught a glimpse of silver hair.

Roxas ducked round the corner, nearly spilling the load in his arms. Where did Riku come from? The blond cautiously glanced back; Riku was heading towards his hiding spot.

Roxas couldn't let Riku see him now. He would definitely know that he went to see Sora.

A black hole gaped behind the approaching Elemental. _That must be one of those "portals_" Sora was talking about, he thought. It was only a few steps away. If he made a run for it, he could enter the portal without Riku seeing him.

But where did the portal lead? It could be some weird place outside the castle or something.

However, he also didn't want to be separated from Sora again. How would they ever get back to the Key kingdom if they weren't allowed to communicate with each other?

Roxas took a deep breath and, praying that Riku would not see him, dove into the strange dark portal.

* * *

**A/N: **Chemistry test tomorrow. And netball training. Wish me luck.

_-Phantom Kira_


	9. Revealed sides

**A/N:** WARNING! This is an _extremely _short chapter. I'll try to make the next one longer as a form of compensation.

That's all I can say.

Reviewers, thank you:

reeby10

aarnikotka

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

coolmegan123

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: I tired of this.

**Chapt 8: Revealed sides

* * *

**

DiZ was now reading the letter. Axel had trekked all the way back to the castle and was now standing nervously before him. The air in the room was still and warm.

He knew that his element was fire but this was really too much. The redhead was perspiring like a waterfall. His annoyingly thick hood was down but he was still dressed in the cloak that was attached to the hood, which was just as thick and annoying in this weather.

_Well, at least I'm not in the sun anymore._ Axel thought, in an attempt to be optimistic. _Not in the damn, bloody, fu—_

"So." DiZ finally said after scrutinizing every word written on the letter for what seemed to be the fifth, looking back at Axel."

"Yessir." Axel barked, a tad too fast, broken out of his thoughts in shock.

DiZ raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe you have changed your name to 'So', unless you have failed to inform me that you are tired of the name 'Axel' and therefore changed it to 'So'." (In short: Do not interrupt me when I am speaking)

"…" _Whoops, wasn't paying attention,_ thought Axel guiltily.

"Moving on. You reported that a girl from the Key kingdom managed to get past our borders and left this note addressed to me, am I correct?"

"Yeah." There was a faint rustling sound outside but Axel decided to ignore it. There were more important matters to concentrate on now. Like paying attention when DiZ spoke.

"How interesting…" DiZ glanced through the letter once more, leaving Axel to fidget restlessly again.

_**forget-me-not**_

Five minutes passed before DiZ finally dismissed Axel.

As he walked to the door, he mentally planned what he would be doing when he got back to the room.

Firstly, he had to get his Organization cloak off; he was dying of overheating.

Then, being the slacker he was, he would probably laze around in nothing but his underwear, being lazy enough not to walk over to his closet and get his clothes.

And if a certain blond haired kid happened to see… It was an added bonus.

Grinning to himself, he opened the door and slid out, closing the door behind him. Turning towards the direction to his room, he took a few steps forward before he heard the rasp of cloth against the wall and neatly sidestepped. Half a second later, Roxas went flying past him, a mixed look of shock and anger on his face.

Axel grabbed the blond's wrist as he passed him and pinned him to the nearest wall. His face was only a few inches away from Roxas's.

"What's with the ambush, eh?" He asked softly, noticing the unusually tense face of anger on Roxas's face.

Roxas looked up, blue eyes colder than usual, and slammed his free hand into the redhead's stomach, making him loosen his grip on him. "I heard your conversation about a Key girl, who brought a letter with her." He grabbed the taller boy's collar and dragged his face down to his eye-level. "_Tell me who was it and what the letter contained._"

Axel wasn't used to this attitude from Roxas. It never struck him how cold the younger boy could be. But he wasn't going to let a Key boy who was younger than him get the better of him. The other times in the past were different, he was just teasing and playing around with the kid. This was something different.

After all, he was a cold-blooded soldier of the Elemental kingdom, why would he get hit by a normal person?

Only a smirk warned Roxas of the change in the Elemental, before a vice-like grip on the hand that was holding Axel's collar made him release his hold, teeth gritted in pain. As soon as his hand left the collar, both his hands were twisted behind him painfully and his body was crushed against the wall, with Axel at his back.

"I don't take orders from you, _Roxie_." Axel's lips brushed lightly against Roxas's ear as he spoke, sending shivers down his spine.

Then suddenly, his hands were dropped and the body behind him moved away. Roxas turned around cautiously; hands ready to summon Oathkeeper and Oblivion if he was attacked.

Axel grinned back at him, as if nothing had happened just now and started walking off, leaving a stunned Roxas behind.

He's a very dangerous guy… 

_**forget-me-not**_

_He's an idiot,_ thought Roxas as he propped his head up with both his hands. He was sitting cross-legged, facing the wall next to the door, which seemed to be the spot he had been occupying for most of his time.

Currently, he was trying to ignore a certain redhead, who was somewhere in the room behind him, clad only in his pants.

Upon returning to the room, having not spoken a single word to each other during the long walk, Axel came to a sudden halt in the doorway, causing Roxas to walk into his back.

Expecting an attack of some sort, the wary blond backed away from Axel, hands prepared to summon his keyblades if anything happened. What he did not expect was for the redheaded idiot to throw off his long cloak with a loud relieved sigh.

Roxas found himself looking at the back of a shirtless Axel. A rather nice back too, he added mentally as he lifted a foot to shove the Elemental into the room. Axel shifted to the side, the kick missing him entirely. Then he entered his own room, deliberately slow, whistling a cheerful tune.

"You have to be better than that to touch me," Axel turned around and smirked at Roxas. "_Roxie._"

Roxas so wanted to kill him.

_**forget-me-not**_

The dark silver-haired teen opened the door; nose buried in a book as usual, took a step out and heard a rustling sound. He looked down.

There were papers and books scattered around the front of his door. A look of surprise crossed his usually emotionless face as he surveyed the mess with his uncovered eye, the other being hidden behind dark silver bangs.

How did all these get here?

He closed the book he was reading with a quiet snap then bent down to pick a sheet of paper up. His eyes widened at the content of the page. Interesting.

Kneeling down, he began gathering the papers and books on the floor; they would be of use in the near future.

* * *

**Question:**

How does the ranking system of the Elemental kingdom work?

**Answer:**

Firstly there's a leader/king/ruler which is DiZ. He oversees practically everything in the kingdom, gives the Organization members jobs and so on. And he gets a nice chair which looks like a throne too.

Then there's the people directly under him. The group called the Organization, Organization XIII to be exact. You know who they are. The people with the long black cloaks. They receive orders directly from DiZ and either carry it out themselves or order somebody to do it. Sort of like the commanders. They supervise the citizens, staff and the soldiers of the kingdom.

And a castle must have its staff right? Therefore there are servants and maids, which are all under the members of the Organization. A different area of the castle is controlled by a different person in the Organiztion.

Lastly, there are the creatures that make up majority of the Element kingdom army. The lesser Nobodies. Basically they're the soldiers of the Element kingdom. A different type of Nobody is controlled by a different Organization member and has a different place in the army.

They also have citizens, which lead a simpler life living outside the castle.

Hopes this helps, **Roxas-Has-A-Stick**!

_-Phantom Kira_


	10. Horses and Magic

**A/N: **Hey yo folks. It's the school holidays next week! -cheers- I injured my knee so I won't be going to the holiday netball trainings either.

Free time, here I come!

Love ya guys:

TheAngelOfHope

coolmegan123

reeby10

Murd3r4lyf3

The Brilliant Idiot

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Too tired to think of one, but no, I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**Chapt 9: Horses and Magic

* * *

**

The brown four-legged creature regarded the boy before it with solemn black eyes. Blue eyes, filled with fascination watched the creature's every move.

"Are you sure you haven't seen a horse before?" Axel stood behind Roxas; clearly amused at the way the boy stared at the horse. He was casually leaning against a pole in the stable, arms crossed across his chest.

Roxas shook his head, eyes never leaving the animal before him. "We never had 'horses' in the Key kingdom."

"Then what do you use for getting across long distances?"

"Our legs, obviously." Roxas neglected to mention the bikes that a few Key citizens rode. An instructor at his school, Cloud, had taught him how to ride one, but he couldn't do all the wild stunts Cloud did.

Axel fingered the key chain in his pocket, wondering if that ninja girl had really traveled to the Element kingdom on foot and back again. That girl sure had some legs; the distance between both the kingdoms was no stroll in the park.

Somebody sneezed near him, interrupting his thoughts. He turned his head and saw Demyx making his way towards him, rubbing his nose furiously. The hay in the stable irritated his nose.

"Hey." Demyx raised a palm up in greeting as he came within earshot. Roxas waved back at him without looking back and Axel merely glanced at him to acknowledge his presence.

Demyx was being obviously ignored here. He turned his back to them, muttering under his breath. "I swear, some people just have no respect for me. One has known me for a week, that's fine, but the other one has known me for almost his whole life and still no respect from that egoistic…"

"You don't need respect, Demyx. It suits you fine without it." A soft voice came floating out from a stall. A young man walked out of the stall, leading a black horse out with one hand, carrying a thick book with the other hand. Dark silver hair spilled down one side of his face, covering half his face.

"Not another one!" Demyx threw up his hands in defeat and strode into another stall. Axel noticed that his friend's face was an interesting shade of red as he left.

Roxas finally broke his gaze away from the horse when he heard the new voice and stared at the newcomer. "Who are you?"

Axel noted that there was less hostility in his voice than last week when he asked the same question to Riku, Demyx and whoever he met. That was good. It meant that the boy was finally settling down in this place. His brother, Sora, had already settled down a long time ago and was now on a minor mission with Riku.

"Zexion." The other Elemental replied simply before swinging himself onto the horse and flipping the book open. He stared at Roxas with an interested gleam in his eye. "Roxas? Nice to meet you."

With that, he trotted out of the stable, somehow managing to navigate his way past obstacles with his eyes glued to the book on his lap. Roxas looked at Axel questioningly.

"He isn't very talkative and he likes to read." The redhead shrugged in reply. He walked over to the horse that Roxas had been staring at and stroked it gently. Then, turning to Roxas, he asked, "Do you want to go on a ride?"

_**forget-me-not**_

"I'm surprised you managed to stay on your horse for that long." Riku told Sora, who was trying not to slide off his horse. Sora shot a glare at him then yelped as he grabbed at the reins to prevent himself from falling off.

"I told you," Sora paused to steady himself, then looked straight at the silver haired boy next to him. "I won't fall."

It was then his horse decided to stop suddenly in its tracks, dumping an indignant Sora on the ground.

"Hey! You can't do that." Sora leapt to his feet and tugged at the reins of his horse, which was peacefully ignoring his rider and grazing at the edge of the road.

"You can't tell a horse what it can't do, Sora." Riku told Sora, trying to keep a straight face, although his voice clearly showed his amusement. Sora's horse neighed in what seemed to be agreement. "Face it, you're the worst person I've ever seen to ride a horse—"

"Oh," Sora cut him off, crossing his arms over his chest and giving him a glare half as good as Roxas's. (That's not bad) "So now you're the best rider in the world."

It could have flared up into a full-force argument but they were distracted by the sound of an approaching horse and looked down the road, towards the source of the noise.

A young man came into view shortly, riding a black horse. He was engrossed in the book he was holding, eyes focusing more on the book than the road.

Sora watched in amazement as, without looking up, the young man ducked his head beneath an overhead branch that was in the way as his horse trotted at a steady pace. Straightening up as if nothing had happened, he continued to read.

As he passed by the duo, he spoke, eyes never leaving his book.

"Hey Riku."

The dark silver haired male continued on down the road.

"Weird." Sora finally commented.

"Well," Riku agreed. "That's Zexion for you."

_**forget-me-not**_

After chasing after Roxas for nearly an hour, Axel finally managed to catch up with the panicked horse, which had an equally panicky Roxas clinging onto its back.

Damn that horse. Why the heck did it have to make a run for freedom after seeing the gate open? With an inexperienced rider riding it, nonetheless.

It had galloped down a road, across a plain, over several stiles and finally stopped near the river, having managed to jerk Roxas off its back and into the water. That was quite a distance away from the castle.

When Axel arrived, he found the horse grazing by a few clumps of plants and a very annoyed, and not to mention drenched, Roxas sitting grumpily on a small grass patch. His spiky hair had fallen into wet locks of hair that clung onto his head, dripping water onto his soaked clothes.

Analyzing the situation quickly, he burst out laughing in the blond's face.

Roxas gave his trademark scowl. "It's not funny. I'd like to see you get thrown into the water by a cursedly fast animal."

Axel grimaced. He didn't like water. For one, fire and water did not mix. Idly, he squatted down beside Roxas, held a palm up and let a burst of flames dance in his hand. Roxas jumped in surprise.

"Magic?" He inquired as he reached out his hand towards the fire. He snatched his hand back almost immediately; it was hot.

Back at the Key kingdom, only Namine had the aptitude for it. The rest of the class only managed basic spells or had absolutely no magic skill whatsoever.

"It's my element." Axel explained as he held the small fireball near Roxas's clothes. The water let off a slight hissing sound as it evaporated, the cloth becoming crisp and dry again.

"Element?"

"Why do you think our kingdom is called 'Element kingdom'?" Axel moved the fire nearer to Roxas's hair. It started sticking up back into spikes as it dried.

Roxas was startled. "Everyone in the Element kingdom has an element?"

"Yeah, except for a few exceptions. The stronger ones work for DiZ and they live up in the castle. We form a group called the Organization or Organization VIII." Roxas didn't miss the use of the word 'we' in his sentence.

When he was satisfied with the dry clothes and hair, the fireball vanished. The redhead stood up and dusted his hands. "We should be going soon. It's getting dark."

Axel was right. The sky was a dusty violet color, in a while it would be nightfall. There was only one problem.

"There's only one horse."

"Yeah, so I guess we have to share." The Elemental sounded a little too happy about it.

"No way."

_**forget-me-not**_

They were halfway to the castle when the sky darkened. Night had fallen.

Roxas had given in. Neither of them wanted to walk back, even if Axel did run all the way there on foot. And it had been agreed that Axel was to take control of the horse, lest it decided to make a wild run for it. Axel was sitting behind Roxas so that he wouldn't fall off.

"Hey Roxas."

"What?" Roxas was already half asleep, exhausted from today's trip to the river.

"We have to stop here for tonight. It's too dark to go on and I can't light a fire while riding, it's too dangerous."

Roxas sat up straighter and rubbed his eyes groggily. Then, he looked at the ground before them through half-closed eyes. Pinpricks of light began to light up by the roadside, enough for Axel to see where he was going. His work done, Roxas leaned back against the body behind him and closed his eyes.

Axel stopped the horse.

Light? He squinted at the tiny sources of light on the ground. It was pure light, no fire, no torch or anything. Axel inhaled sharply. Light was an element.

He prodded the lightly sleeping boy. "Roxas. Roxas. Wake up."

"Ngh." A blue eye opened and looked at him. "What?"

"Are you only able to produce light?"

"Mm."

"No other magic?"

"Mm."

"Only light? No healing, no attack spells, no—"

"Only light, ok? Now shut up and let me sleep."

Roxas's eyelids slid close and within seconds the boy was fast asleep again. The redhead frowned down at him before nudging the horse to move again. The light followed them as they moved.

This was bad. Only Elementals were able to control the elements, and only the elements, nothing else. Roxas came from the Key kingdom, it wasn't possible. Unless…

Axel eyed the light uneasily. Roxas's element magic was strong; it stayed lighted even when he fell asleep. If he were an Elemental, he might even be able to join the Organization.

* * *

**A/N:** Should I pair Demyx with Zexion? -evil grin- 


	11. Failed Rescue

**A/N:** Whew! Long chapter up ahead. It's a bit sad too... And a little to the cliche side.

My love goes out to youuuu:

reeby10

Superemily

Murd3r4lyf3

coolmegan123

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

A-Flame-in-the-Rain

**A/N(2):** Check out my new story, **Isn't Someone Missing Me?** It's a bit boring because it only has one chapter, which is the prologue. But bear with it! Drop a review if you're free.

**

* * *

**

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Don't own it. If I did, there sure as heck would be a lot of deaths in the game. (sadist)

**Chapt 10: Failed Rescue

* * *

**

"Are you ready?"

"Yep," the blond teenager adjusted the strap on his shoulder and looked back at the redheaded girl. "We all are."

Behind him, a group of three teenagers were crouched behind him, carrying various equipment of some sort and looking grim. Except for the blond girl.

Namine only had a small pack tied around her waist, her face worried. She was staring straight at the girl at the head of their group.

"Kairi, are you sure we're doing the right thing?"

The redhead looked back at Namine, her hair tied up in a neat ponytail, swinging behind her. A bow was in her hand, a quiver slung across a shoulder. Her pack was on her back, held in place by two straps across her shoulders. She narrowed her eyes at the blond.

"Don't you want to rescue them? They're our best friends! We can't just sit here and do nothing, like those useless adults who tried to stop us! What if they're being mistreated in the Element kingdom? It's all up to us."

Namine remained silent and followed them as they continued through the tunnel.

A clear bright light drifted ahead of the small group, courtesy of Namine. It flickered slightly as the girl's walking slowed down.

There was something wrong with what they were doing. It was an itch in her mind that she couldn't get out. But there was doubt about it, something terrible would happen.

"Namine! Stop daydreaming and hurry up! It won't be long before they discover that we're gone."

Namine looked up. It was the end of the tunnel; Kairi, Hayner, Pence and Olette were waiting for her outside. She had no choice; she had already come this far.

The girl took a step forward, into the waiting light.

_**forget-me-not**_

"Why." A keyblade slashed through a Heartless. "The _heck_." More Heartless were cut open by the white keyblade that flashed through them. "Do I have to do this?!" A Heartless that was creeping up behind Roxas was stabbed through with a black keyblade.

Axel grimaced as the last Heartless burst into flames right before him, scorching the front of his cloak. He dusted the charred threads and cloth off him, turning to the panting Roxas with the usual smirk on his face.

"Well, you are disguising as my _servant_ during your stay here, therefore you are required to follow me on missions." He lifted a delicately red eyebrow at the boy. "Besides, it looks like you had fun."

Roxas turned away from Axel, trying to wipe the satisfied smile off his face. It had been some time since he'd been on a Heartless raid like this. He missed the thrill of killing off the annoying black creatures.

Heartless were a danger to people. In both the Key and the Element kingdom it seemed. An average Heartless could be a danger to normal people who had absolutely no fighting experience. To people who could fight, they were merely a nuisance that were found almost everywhere and had to be dispatched.

"You didn't need the help." Roxas pointed out, back still to Axel. "You barely moved from that spot since all you had to do was flame the Heartless that were around you."

"True, but with you around I could relax more." The redhead appeared in a mass of swirling darkness before Roxas.

Roxas scowled and walked past the redhead, into the portal. He stepped out onto the familiar white marble ground of the castle, Axel right behind him.

The mysteries of portals had been explained to him by Axel and were now a convenient way of transport when Axel was around to make them.

_"Why didn't you use the portal during that time when my horse when off?" The blond asked curiously after the lesson on portals._

_"Why?" Axel spread his hands out in an innocent way. "Because I thought it seemed romantic for both of us to ride back to the castle on the same horse. Don't you think so too, Roxie?"_

_Roxas punched Axel in the face._

Blushing slightly at the memory, Roxas turned at a corner and the familiar door of Axel's room greeted him. As he pulled out his spare keys to the room, his head was jerked back by an arm and he felt lips on his ear.

"Gotta go." A teasing voice whispered into his ear. "There's a meeting now. Don't stay up for me now."

Axel kissed Roxas's cheek before letting go off him. Ready to whack Axel, Roxas turned around and saw nothing but a trace of a disappearing portal.

"That guy gets bolder by the day…" Roxas mumbled, his face burning red as he fumbled with the doorknob. Just yesterday Axel had kissed him on the cheek again before leaving for a mission.

Surprisingly, Roxas liked that.

_**forget-me-not**_

"You're late." DiZ informed Axel as he appeared on his seat, a flash of darkness telling him how he arrived.

The rest of the Organization members stared at Axel from their various seats raised high above the ground. A few seats were empty. Axel avoided looking at them.

"Now that we're all here, the meeting shall start."

The Organizations gave their normal reports of the week and so on. It was boring, but necessary, or so it seemed to DiZ. Axel found it a waste of time.

"So Riku, Axel how are Sora and Roxas?"

The silver haired boy opposite Axel replied first. " Sora's fine, he's settling in. He followed me on a couple of missions."

"Good. Now Axel."

"Roxas's fine too. We just came back from a mission and he managed to skewer more than half of the Heartless group."

DiZ looked down at Axel, skeptically. "If that's nothing more, you're all dismissed."

The people in the seats disappeared in a flash of darkness and appeared on the ground. Now the real meeting started between the Organization members as they left the room, away from DiZ.

The only woman of their group jostled Axel, catching his attention.

"What?"

"So, romanced the kid yet? After a week, I thought you would have at least slept with him already."

Demyx appeared on the other side of Axel and faced Larxene.

"Axel has values, unlike you."

The blond woman laughed. "Oh yeah. I forgot, you're worse. Don't think I don't know what's going on between you and Zexion." With that, she walked out of the door, laughter echoing behind her.

Axel looked questioningly at his best friend, who was turning a dark shade of red and uttering a series of indignant squawks.

"Zexion?"

"No comment." Demyx answered darkly and walked away. "I'm going back to my room."

_Isn't his room the other way? That way is to…_ Axel grinned. _Zexion's room._

**_forget-me-not_**

Outside the walls of the kingdom, two girls were desperately running for the safety of the kingdom. They were streaked with grime, blood and, on their faces, tears.

Everything had gone wrong. They had left the Key kingdom in a group of five but now they were only two. The bodies of their group members were probably somewhere between the two kingdoms, hearts gone and body ripped to pieces.

A fresh spurt of tears found their way down Kairi's face. She didn't mean for it to turn out this way. She didn't mean for Hayner, Pence or Olette to die. She didn't mean for only Namine and her to reach the Element kingdom.

A warm hand grabbed hers and she looked up. Namine smiled back at her through teary eyes, half her face covered in blood flowing from her closed eye. Her other hand was emulating a faint glow which matched the pearly transparent barrier that had just been formed around them.

The Heartless that threw themselves against the barrier fell away, smoking and shrieking. Namine's magic was not used up. Kairi scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to wipe away her tears.

Namine was right. There was no time for crying now. They had to fight their way to the Element kingdom. She let go of Namine's hand and notched two arrows to her bow. Aiming at a particularly big Heartless, she let the arrows fly.

They sliced through the air and lodged themselves into the Heartless's body. It fell to the ground with a hideous wail.

The girls ran on.

Magic and arrows cleared the path for them. But both were quickly running out. Heartless gathered menacingly around them, waiting for the barrier to disappear.

The walls were only a few feet away when the barrier disappeared, the caster exhausted. The Heartless pounced.

_**forget-me-not**_

Sora awoke with a start in his bed. He had a dream. Someone was screaming.

The window showed him that it was a beautiful sunny day, but somehow he felt sad. He couldn't figure out why.

A quick look around the room showed that Riku wasn't in the room. The silver haired Elemental had been avoided Sora lately; he barely spoke to Sora when they were together.

Sigh. Well, it was time to get up then.

_**forget-me-not**_

"Come with me."

"What?"

After stepping out the room, he was immediately dragged away by Axel. Apparently, he had been waiting outside the room for Roxas to come out.

He led the boy through the clean white corridors and finally stopped at a door with a red cross painted on it. Axel opened the door.

There were two girls in the room. One was lying, unconscious on the bed and the other was sitting on a chair next to the bed, her back facing the door. She didn't respond when they entered.

Roxas stared at the girl on the bed in disbelief. It was Kairi. Namine was the girl by her bed, tears streaming down her face silently. Her head was swathed in bandages, a few strands dropping down to cover her injured eye.

"It's my fault. I should have stopped them," Namine couldn't stop her voice from shaking. "Now they're all…" She trailed off, unable to speak.

Roxas went over to the Key girl and put an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. She threw her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder.

Axel, who was watching nearby, growled slightly.

"I'm so sorry, Roxas." Her words came out muffled. "Just so… sorry. I couldn't protect them…"

Roxas patted her back awkwardly. He felt distant, as if he wasn't in the hospital room, but somewhere else far away instead. Three of his friends were dead and one lay dying before him. Strangely he didn't feel anything, just sort of… empty.

Sora chose this moment to burst into the room. It took him a moment to realize who were in the room.

"Kairi?!" He yelled in disbelief, mirroring Roxas's feelings, and ran over to her. "What happened to her?" The question wasn't directed at anyone, but he wanted an answer.

Axel answered him quietly. "We found her," He jerked his head towards Namine. "Clutching the half-dead body of that girl at the front gates this morning. She was screaming Roxas's and your name."

Sora grabbed Kairi's hand and pulled himself closer, giving her a gentle hug.

Riku, who had followed Sora here, bristled slightly.

"Now you know how I feel." Axel remarked softly to him, narrowing his eyes at Namine, who still had her arms around Roxas. However, the two Elementals decided to let them be for now. Something more personal was taking place here; the Key girls and boys needed the comfort.

Namine finally pulled herself together and detached herself from Roxas. The blond girl walked towards and stared straight at the Elemental lounging by the door.

"I know." She spoke, her voice soft and her face deadly serious. Her gaze was unnerving. "I know everything. If she dies," She glanced at Kairi then looked back, there was pain in her eyes. "I do too, don't I?"

Axel shifted uncomfortably. The girl knew, or so she said. He looked away from her; there was nothing he could do. At least she knew her fate and was brave enough to face it.

The blond girl gave a gentle sigh and surprisingly, smiled. "I knew something like this would happen. I knew I was different. I knew I would disappear soon."

Axel remained silent. Namine smiled sadly at him. The machine by Kairi's bed let off an ominous beep. Then another. And another, which dragged on.

"She's dead." Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder. The brunette was crying.

Roxas stared down at the body of his friend. Dead. She was dead. Another one of his friends was dead. He felt emptier.

Arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a hug. Namine was telling him something.

"… Goodbye." She stepped away from him. Her body was shimmering and he could see through her. "Don't end up like me. Take care of Sora and yourself."

Roxas reached out for her. His hand passed through her. "What's happening?" He demanded, his confusion showing on his face. "You're fine, aren't you? Why are you disappearing?"

"You'll know one day. But for know," She took a deep breath. "You could say I'm dying. I'm going back to the darkness."

She closed her eyes as her body flickered. When she opened them again, they were filled with tears. "You know, I'm… scared. I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't want to… I don't want to disappear."

"You'll go to Heaven for sure." Roxas tried to assure her, but it sounded weak and useless. Even to himself.

Namine gave him a sad smile. It was hard to see her face; it was fading. "But Roxas, Nobodies like me don't go to Heaven…"

She shimmered in the air for a while as a bright light encased her. The same bright light glowed dimly around Kairi. When the light faded, she was gone. Her last word hung in the empty silence.

* * *

_-Phantom Kira_


	12. Hurt and Comfort: Opening up my Heart

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait! My computer broke down and had to be sent for repairs. (Damn you, unfaithful computer)

I live on reviews(and instant noodles and coke):

Sarie Bear

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

coolmegan123

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reeby10

**

* * *

**

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: I claim nothing! I have no Kingdom Hearts merchandise. The only thing I have is my stories and my over-imaginative brain.

**Chapt 11: Hurt and Comfort/Opening up my Heart**

* * *

Roxas hadn't spoken since the Key girls, Kairi and Namine died.

His legs dangled over the edge of the building as he sat motionless under the watch of Axel. The redhead was convinced that Roxas might be suicidal in a way. All he ever did now was to stare moodily at the place below him and kick his feet against the outer walls of the castle from where he was sitting.

Axel had been impressed by the way Roxas swiftly made his way through the many levels of the castle without making a wrong turn once. The boy sure knew his way around.

But it had shocked him when he followed the silent boy up to the rooftops. That was when he became convinced that Roxas was suicidal.

Riku had approached him earlier that they. Apparently, Sora had the similar behavior as his brother. However, Sora was the more emotional one. He had cried for his friends when they passed on and continued until the next day.

On the other hand, Roxas didn't even shed a tear. He had a permanently blank look on with his eyes hidden beneath his bangs. It worried Axel to see him like that. If Roxas looked like that on the outside how was he on the inside? He wasn't opening up to anyone and his brother, Sora, couldn't help, he had problems of his own.

Footsteps sounded from the stairway. Axel looked up; Roxas didn't respond.

A familiar blond Elemental stepped out onto the flat surface of the rooftops with a dark silvered hair male behind him. Both of them were carrying two sea salt ice-cream bars each.

Demyx offered one to Axel, who took it, then went over to the other blond and attempted a smile. It ended in a frown, as it yielded no reaction from the younger blond.

Head hung in defeat the blond walked back over to Axel, who was mouthing an "I told you so" to him. He had told Demyx about Roxas's reaction, or lack of reaction.

Demyx began to whisper furiously at him, trying to keep his voice down so as not to let Roxas hear their conversation.

Meanwhile, Zexion walked over to Roxas's other side and pulled the boy's hand up. The Organization member folded his limp fingers over the ice cream stick and propped it on his lap, careful not to let the already melting ice cream smear onto his clothes.

Face unreadable, Zexion pulled Demyx away from his conversation with Axel, and, with a nod to the redhead, walked back down the stairs, his free hand twining with Demyx's.

Axel didn't miss that action as they left. He let out a soft sigh. They went well together.

His ice cream reminded Axel that it was still there by dripping over his hand. Licking his hand clean, he went over to Roxas's side and crouched down.

Roxas's ice cream was dripping into his lap but still he sat unmoving at the edge of the castle. Bluish liquid stained his hands and his pants. Axel sighed and reached over to take the rapidly melting ice cream bar from Roxas's hands.

The boy didn't let go.

A drop of colorless liquid slid down his face to join the small puddle on his lap. Another drop followed after the first. And another. And another.

Roxas was crying. It took him two days to finally let it out. His face scrunched up in an attempt to stop his tears but they streaming down his face.

Axel closed his eyes and tried to remember what Demyx had said to him before.

"_Now, you see. This is bad. Bad bad bad bad." Demyx stood in front of him, waving his half-eaten ice cream bar._

"_How so? At least he isn't crying." Axel tried to avoid the flying specks of ice cream._

_Demyx smacked his forehead with his palm._

"_No, that's the bad thing I was talking about. He isn't opening up. The kid's keeping his feelings bottled up in him. It's unhealthy."_

"_Elaborate."_

"_Okay, let's say, what if you fill a bottle with water, a bit at a time. At first, there's no harm there. Then after a while, the bottle reaches its limit, but the water continues to fill it up. What would happen?"_

"_It'll overflow."_

"_Exactly. That's what's happening to Roxas now."_

"_Then what can I do."_

"_Make him open up, get him to let out his feelings, maybe crying might help; that's what his brother's doing to recover. When you let out your tears, you feel much better. Trust me. Most importantly, comfort him."_

"_How?"_

"_You could—"_

_At this moment, Demyx was dragged away by Zexion, who had grabbed his hood and started pulling. With a nod to Axel, he took Demyx's hand and walked away._

Axel opened his eyes, realizing that Demyx hadn't told him what to do in this circumstance. He glanced sideways at Roxas, who was still crying silently.

He did the first thing that came into his mind.

Abandoning his ice cream bar on the floor, he pulled Roxas away from the ledge and hugged him, his hands sliding around the blond's waist and pulling him closer.

The watery blue mess that used to be Roxas's ice cream fell from his hands and landed on the other abandoned ice cream, mashing the two together.

A fresh spurt of tears soaked the older male's shoulder as Roxas buried his face into the soft material of his black Organization cloak, shaking with the effort of crying.

How long had it had been since he last cried? How long had it been since he'd been hugged by someone who wasn't Sora?

He didn't know. He didn't care.

Roxas wrapped his hands around Axel's shoulders, returning the hug. It felt… nice. It gave him a warm feeling. His tears fell in thinner flows now.

They looked at each other, with Axel tilting his head down and Roxas turning his face up. Their faces were only a few inches apart. If one of them just moved closer…

The thought struck the both of them at the same time as Axel bent his head down more and Roxas tiptoed slightly.

Their lips met.

Roxas wrapped his arms around Axel's neck as a hand went to the back of his head to support him. Encouraged by the blond's reaction, Axel slanted his mouth across Roxas's and pressed his lips firmer against his.

Their hold on each other tightened. Licking the seam of Roxas's mouth lightly, he gently pried the younger male's lips open and slid his tongue in.

Blue eyes snapped open as something probed the inside of his mouth. Green eyes looked back comfortingly and pleading. He didn't want to stop. Both of them were enjoying this.

Hesitatingly, Roxas shut his eyes again and returned back the kiss. The hand at his waist left its place to slid up his back, under the cloth of his shirt.

Roxas pushed Axel away, swaying unsteadily on his feet before hands supported him. He crashed to the floor with Axel under him.

"Sorry." Roxas scrambled off the lanky redhead and sat beside him, trying his best not to look at him. There was a very prominent blush spreading across his face, he was sure of that.

Axel sat up, eyes fixed on Roxas. Silence floated between the both of them as none of them said anything or moved.

Suddenly, the redhead spoke, his voice sounding awkward in the silence. "So… Are you feeling better?"

"Umm… Yeah." Roxas replied, still looking away.

_Great, now he can't bear to look at me…_ Axel thought, resigned.

"Thank you."

Axel stared at the blond. Did he just say 'thank you'?

Roxas turned his head slowly to meet his eyes. He didn't look sad or blank anymore. Neither did he look like his old self, haughty and spunky.

For the first time since they met, Roxas was genuinely smiling.

And it was because he finally opened up his heart to someone, namely Axel.

* * *

**A/N:** The next chapter's important. (I think)


	13. False Existence and unLocked Memories

**A/N: **Don't worry, I haven't died and left all of you behind. I was just going through... something.

This chapter's kinds confusing but it's important, I guess. These few chapters have been serious and un-fun because sadly, the story's coming to an end soon. I just can't imagine it... -stares of into distance-

This is the most reviews I've ever had. I'm happy and grateful to all of you:

Twilight Emo Wind Goddess 801

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Thanks for your wonderful support! Keep 'em coming!

_edit: Crap. I got the numbers mixed up..._

**

* * *

Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Don't own it. It wouldn't be this brilliant if I made it.

**Chapt 12: False Existence and (un)Locked Memories**

* * *

Currently, both of them were making their way to the completely opposite sides of the castle. They needed as much space as they could have now; more than half a castle apart between both of them should have been enough.

Upon leaving the rooftops, Roxas and Axel had immediately bolted for different directions, much to the surprise of the two Organization members who had been hiding somewhere under the shadow of the staircase. It was as if there had been some sort of silent agreement of some sort between those two.

Demyx stood up from where he was crouching and was promptly yanked back by Zexion, who was behind him.

"They need to be alone for a while," Zexion explained to the blond who was trying frantically to get up and follow Axel.

"Knowing Axel for almost his whole life, he does not need to be alone. He's probably searching for me, so that he can shake me and shout in my face about what had just done with Roxie there." Demyx finally shook his arm free from Zexion's grip and grinned at the scowl on the other male's face. "Which we already know about."

Watching the blond leave, Zexion decided to follow the other younger blond, just to be even.

_**forget-me-not**_

Roxas was a man on a mission. Well, actually he was a boy on a mission. But let's not worry about the small details now.

His mission: Get Sora.

"Sora!" The banging open of the door was accompanied with a loud yell. A lump on the bed replied with an incoherent grunt.

"Sora!" Roxas yelled again, tearing the covers off Sora. His twin glared up at him through bloodshot eyes.

"What?" He croaked and made a grab for the covers; he didn't want to face Roxas now, he didn't want to face _anyone_ now. Roxas held them out of reach.

"Get up," ordered Roxas. "I need to tell you something important.

Sora eyed him through squinted eyes, feeling annoyed and frustrated at Roxas. Their best friends had just died and here Roxas was, acting as if nothing had happened.

"You don't care about them?" Sora turned his back on Roxas and curled up on the bed. "Kairi, Namine, Hayner, Pence and Olette. Their deaths are irrelevant to you, are they Roxas?"

"What?" The voice behind him could have been described as hissing if not for the unnatural iciness in it that was Roxas's trademark.

"Their deaths mean nothing to you, Roxas." Sora said, back still facing his brother.

Roxas reached over Sora's motionless body, grabbed the front of his collar and hauled him up. Blue eyes burned into blue eyes.

"Of course I care." Roxas stared coldly into his older brother's eyes. "I care, but I show it differently. Why, do you expect me to isolate myself from everybody else and cry myself half to death like you?"

With the last word, he let go of Sora's collar and let him crumple to the bed again.

"Grow up, Sora." Roxas stepped away from the bed. "You may be my older brother, but you sure are younger than me mentally."

He walked out of the room.

**_forget-me-not_**

As Roxas paced through the pure white corridors of the castle, he cursed Sora mentally. He needed Sora's advice on this matter. The strong-willed reliable older brother Sora, not the sad weakling of a brother who was still mourning for the deaths of his friends.

He reached a spiral staircase and unthinkingly started going down. His feet carried him all the way to the bottom floor and when he finally paid attention to his surroundings, he realized that he had absolutely no idea where he was now.

Before he started going back up via the staircase he came down by, something caught his eye. There was something strange about the walls here. Roxas stared at them.

A few seconds later, the walls of this level flickered. For half a second, Roxas glimpsed bright digital walls with a few neon lights traveling in thin lines across it. Was this one of the things that Axel had explained to him, something called 'science'? After Axel's explanation of 'science', Roxas had felt that the Key kingdom was primitive compared to the Element kingdom

Roxas watched as the walls flickered again. It was intriguing. He abandoned the steps and walked carefully to one of the walls. The wall looked like any other wall in the castle, yet there was something different about them.

A plan formed in his head. He stretched out an arm and summoned one of his keyblades, Oblivion. Then with a swift movement, he smashed it into the wall.

A sharp metallic sound rang in Roxas's ears as his keyblade connected with the wall. The wall before him flickered rapidly before settling into the digital walls that Roxas had glimpsed before. Neon lights sparked in several places as a section of the wall beside him popped out of place with hissing sound and slid open to reveal a fairly sized doorway.

"Wow." Roxas breathed, eyes wide and keyblade fading out of his hand. He wasn't expecting this to happen. Cautiously, he made his way over to the doorway. Beyond that was what looked to be a laboratory, with large delicate-looking flowerlike vessels, multiple screens clustered around a control panel and other interesting looking objects.

Roxas had never seen anything like this before, but somehow, deep inside him, he felt as if he had come here before. Several parts of the laboratory looked familiar.

He took a step into the room; unaware of the silent alarm he had set off at another part of the castle.

The red bandaged man who had noticed the alarm, got out of his seat, mouth curling into a satisfied smirk. It was time to pay a visit to the basement.

**forget-me-not**

One of the three flower shaped vessels had a sign on it.

_Project XIII_

What did 'Project XIII' mean?

A sharp pain in his head made him cringe. There was something in his mind responding to this.

_Project XIII. Roxas._

Roxas gasped and stumbled away from the vessel, clinging onto the vessel next to the one that had that sign on it. Something banged against his hands. He looked at it.

_Project 0_

The pain in his head intensified. Another memory appeared.

_Project 0. Namine._

He needed to look at the last sign. Staggering, Roxas went over to the last vessel and brought his gaze to look at the sign hung on it.

_Project XIV_

That was it. The memories carefully locked away for the past few years opened to him. He remembered everything.

The projects. The three Nobodies of the Key children, him, Namine and…

_The three of them were being transported to the Key kingdom. He sat huddled up at a corner of the wagon. A blond girl sat next to him, a blindfold around her eyes, to prevent her from using her magic to attack anyone. Another girl sat opposite them, the top half of her body hidden by the shadow cast by the sun._

"_Hi." The speaker was the girl opposite him. He looked up at her voice. "Do you have a name?"_

_Roxas shook his head; he didn't have one at that time. The girl beside him ignored them._

_"Really? They call me 'Project XIV' but I call myself…"_

That part of the memory was missing. He remembered that was when he first called himself Roxas.

_They had made it to the Key kingdom. But when they removed Namine's blindfold, she went berserk. The people who transported them were killed. She turned to Roxas and the unknown girl._

_The mad glint in her eye softened. "I'm erasing your memories." She told them gently as she stretched out a hand towards each of them. "We'll lead normal lives, live with our 'others' and have normal names…"_

_The next time he woke up, he was on a bed, the room he was in familiar yet unfamiliar as well. The door burst open and a brunette came running through it to bounce excitedly beside him._

"_Roxas! You overslept! We were supposed to help Aerith with the shopping this morning!" The brunette, Sora, practically shouted in his ear._

_Sora was his brother?_

_A girl entered the room quietly behind him._

_Namine, another orphan at the orphanage?_

_She smiled gently at him, but it looked like a sad smile at the same time. "Time to get up Roxas. You're just like…"_

That part too was missing. It seemed every piece of memory related to the girl, 'Project XIV', had disappeared. However, it wasn't Namine's doing, it was himself. He didn't want to remember her. Something happened to her then.

"Have you remembered everything, Roxas?" Roxas turned around. A red bandaged man was standing behind him, calmly watching him through one uncovered eye.

Roxas felt rage build up in him as he remembered the man from his memory. "You…" He summoned a keyblade; he didn't care which one it was, as long as it could hurt the man before him now.

"Yes, me." DiZ replied, still annoyingly calm. "I created you, Namine and—"

Roxas lunged forward sliced through him furiously. He didn't want to know 'her' name, he didn't want to remember 'her', he didn't want to know what happened to 'her'. The keyblade sliced through him uselessly.

"You can't hurt me, Roxas," DiZ laughed a cold victorious laugh and mocked Roxas. "or should I call you 'Project XIII'?"

"Shut up." He continued slicing through DiZ. It was no use. The DiZ before him was a hologram. Nothing hurt him now.

"Do you want to return to us? You, a Nobody, you don't exist. None of you exist." He continued talking even as Roxas's keyblade continued passing through his hologram uselessly.

"Shutupshutupshutup…"

"I created all of you. You're all just pathetic clones."

"SHUT UP!" Roxas screamed as the final slice made the hologram before him fade away. He could still hear DiZ's mocking laugh echoing around the room.

He slumped to the ground, slowly falling into a lying position. The keyblade in his hand disappeared. Something trickled down his cheeks.

He didn't exist. He was a clone, a clone of Sora. His life was a sham.

And he actually thought that he had a chance at a normal life. Namine was wrong and where was she now? She died, along with four other of his friends at the orphanage. They were the only proof of his false existence; the rest of his existence was recorded down in the papers scattered on the table.

Lost in his thoughts and steadily returning memories, he didn't notice the entrance of the laboratory slide open and a small group of people rush through it.

He didn't notice as Sora slid to the floor beside him, trying to lift him up into a sitting position. He didn't notice as Demyx sifted through the piles of paper on the table as he learned of their existence. He didn't notice as Riku gently placed a hand on Sora's shoulder, trying to calm him down. He didn't notice as Zexion looked shocked when Demyx shoved the papers in his face.

He didn't notice as Axel carried him up, hands supporting his back and the back of his knees.

Roxas felt tired. Remembering was difficult and exhausting. His eyes slid close as they went past the door of the laboratory.

* * *

_-Phantom Kira_


	14. Everything's going to be alright

**A/N: **I was experiencing a major writer's block for the past few days/ weeks. I even tried drabbling to clear it! (And I posted it up) Well, basically I apologize for taking such a long time to update.

Special thanks to:

Sarie Bear

Murd3r4lyf3

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

coolmegan123

Arkaham

reeby10

Mr.Frost-69

The Brillant Idiot

**Warning:** Um... slightly intimate scenes?

**

* * *

****Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Wish I did, but no I don't.

**Chapt 13: "Everything's going to be alright"**

* * *

The group of them was sprinting through the corridors. Roxas was unconscious and Axel was the one carrying him. It was like the first time they met, when Roxas was half bleeding to death and Axel was speeding through the same corridors.

Except that things had changed since then. There were four others all around him, all as equally worried as him, especially the spiky haired brunette with a rare serious look on his normally cheerful face.

Roxas's head lolled to the side as they turned a corner. Axel adjusted his grip on Roxas without missing a beat. It was a good thing that they were all trained to be inhumanly fast and strong, in Axel's case.

Something you and me would never be able to accomplish

"What's wrong with him?" Axel asked casually, carefully keeping his voice calm, although it was quite obvious that he wasn't.

Everybody, except for Roxas, turned to look at the only one who actually understood any fancy medical terms.

Zexion coughed lightly, racking his brain for the simplest way he could explain to them. "Shock."

Axel and Riku nodded in understanding, even if the former didn't understand what 'shock' meant.

"What's shock?" Sora and Demyx asked, looking confused.

"Never mind." Zexion muttered.

The looks on their faces were tense, despite the light conversation that was carrying on while they were moving. None of them said anything about the weird laboratory they had found Roxas in, but neither had they forgotten. It was just a subject to be brought up later, when Roxas was awake.

They stopped in front of the familiar white door with the red cross painted on it. All of them were only panting slightly, despite having run from one end of the castle to the other.

Axel kicked open the door, to the disapproval of Zexion, and crossed the room briskly to the white hospital beds. Sora entered the room and stopped, barely more than a step into the room. He couldn't enter. The image of Kairi lying on the bed, blood staining her limp body entered his mind.

Warm hands gripped his shoulder and gently massaged them. The image disappeared. Sora relaxed into the comfortable hold and closed his eyes.

"Relax." A soft voice breathed into his ear. Long hair tickled the side of his neck. He opened his eyes and looked straight into the room.

"Riku." The hands left Sora's shoulders and slid down to his hand. Fingers entwined with his.

"Let's go." Sora let Riku pull him towards the direction of Roxas, who was on the bed that he had last seen Kairi on.

Meanwhile, Zexion was explaining something to Axel and Demyx.

"This kind of shock is not permanent." Zexion explained. "Actually, you could say that he's sleeping."

"Really?" Axel asked doubtfully, fingering the blond spikes of Roxas's hair. The boy looked so peaceful in his sleep, when all his outer appearances melted away.

"Well, he has been under a lot of stress considering…" Demyx traded dark looks with Zexion.

Axel watched this exchange with curiosity.

"Considering?" He prompted, raising an eyebrow at both of them.

"Er… Well—" Demyx broke off as they caught sight of the approaching Riku and Sora.

"How's my brother?" Sora asked solemnly; he was still in his serious mode.

Zexion sighed and started his explanation again.

_**forget-me-not**_

_He was in a liquid filled place. There was something through the liquid. He squinted, something outside moved. It looked like a human shape. He stretched out a hand…_

**_Bzzt._**

_Now he was in the back of a moving wagon. A girl opposite him laughed._

"_Well then. If I was supposed to be the fourteenth member of this 'Organization' then that makes you the thirteenth member, Roxas…"_

_**Bzzt.**_

_A hand was on his face, covering it completely. Something in his mind disappeared, his memories. He thrashed; the slender fingers tightened their grip._

"_I'm sorry, Roxas." A soft female voice whispered._

_A girl beside him screamed. "Stop that, Namine…"_

_**Bzzt.**_

_A young brown spiky haired boy, that somewhat resembled him, hugged him._

_"Brother…"_

**_Bzzt._**

_It was another combat lesson._

_The rest of their class was unconscious in different parts of the field. Only he and Sora remained standing beside each other, keyblades held before them._

_Their teacher, Leon, stood before them, taunting them to attack him. The two of them rushed forward…_

**_Bzzt._**

_He was on his way to the battlefield with the rest of the troops._

_"Roxas?" He turned at the sound of his name. The rest of the soldiers marched past him._

_A girl stood at the entrance of the gate, he couldn't see her face._

_"Who are you?" He asked. Deep in his mind, he remembered her as 'Fourteen' or something like that._

_Although he couldn't see her face, he knew that she was smiling._

_"You're going to be alright." She sighed happily._

_A group of soldiers walked between them. When they cleared, she was gone._

**_Bzzt._**

_"Roxas?" The same girl, 'Fourteen', called._

_He found himself walking towards where the voice was coming from. Somehow he knew that this wasn't a memory._

_"Do you want to know your future?"_

_Future?_

_"That's right, Roxas. Your future, decades from now."_

_That's impossible._

_"Oh really?" He could just imagine her raising an eyebrow. "Then let me show you something…"_

**_forget-me-not_**

Roxas opened his eyes.

He was looking at a familiar redheaded person lying on the floor before him. The edges of his body were becoming blurry.

"You're… fading away…" He heard himself say.

"Well, that's what happens when you put your whole being into an attack." Axel replied weakly, turning his head to look at him. "You know what I mean. Not that Nobodies actually HAVE beings… right?"

He laughed lightly. "Anyway, I digress. Go, find Kairi. Oh, almost forgot… Sorry for what I did to her."

Roxas wanted to ask what was happening but instead he said something else, "When we find her, you can tell her that yourself."

Axel looked away. "Think I'll pass. My heart just wouldn't be in it, you know? Haven't got one."

What's happening to you, Axel? Roxas thought silently; his mouth wouldn't let him say all these words. Even his voice was different, it sounded more like… Sora's voice.

"Axel, what were you trying to do?" His traitorous mouth asked.

"I wanted to see Roxas." Axel answered.

What? But I'm here, Axel, aren't I? He thought furiously.

"He… was the only one I liked…" Axel continued. "He made me feel… like I had a heart. It's kind of… funny…"

Roxas remained silent.

"You make me feel… the same…" The Nobody's voice drifted away.

_"You have three chances to be with him, Roxas." The disembodied voice of the girl, 'Fourteen', echoed around him as he felt himself falling away from the scene before him. "This is the first chance…"_

_"Will you succeed, Roxas?"_

**_forget-me-not_**

Roxas suddenly sat up.

There was something wet on his cheeks. Had he been crying? It seemed that he been doing a lot of that lately. Using the back of his hand, he scrubbed the tears away furiously.

Where was Axel?

He couldn't see; he assumed it was nighttime. The whole room was dim, he could barely make out the shapes of several people scattered around the room and one moving shape coming towards him.

"Roxas? Are you awake?" A soft voice came from somewhere in the darkness.

Axel! Roxas sighed in relief. The redhead was still here.

"Roxas?"

"I'm awake," Roxas whispered into the darkness. If he squinted, he could just make out the lanky shape of a guy with spiky hair.

The springs on his mattress groaned as a weight settled beside him. Arms wrapped him, somewhat protectively. Roxas buried his face into the thick material of Axel's cloak, breathing in the comforting smell of the cloth.

Somehow, his tears must have soaked the cloth on Axel's shoulder as the redhead pulled Roxas away from him and brushed the tears from his eyes gently.

"Hey, why are you crying again?" The soothing voice of the older teen came floating through the darkness. Despite the dark, Roxas was still able to see emerald green eyes looking back at him in concern.

Roxas looked away and shook his head violently, breaking out of Axel's grip.

He felt Axel shift his body behind him and pull the blond into his lap. A head rested on his shoulder as arms winded around his waist loosely, holding him in place.

"Are you crying because of… what you found out… about yourself… in the laboratory?" Axel asked hesitantly, worried that he might upset the blond. "Luckily Sora sensed that something was wrong with you and told us…"

Roxas shook his head again.

I cried because I dreamt that you died.

"Because you're not Sora's real brother?"

Another head shake.

I cried because in the dream, you couldn't recognize me.

"Homesick?"

He shook his head more vigorously.

I cried because I couldn't do anything to help you, I could only watch as you faded away.

"Because of that kiss?"

Roxas froze. He could feel his face heating up as memories of that moment entered his mind.

"Do you like me?" Axel's voice sounded amused now.

"Don't change the subject!" Roxas tried to pry the arms away from his waist unsuccessfully. They tightened.

"Finally, a response." Axel said dryly.

Roxas shut his mouth. He was angsting nicely a moment ago. Damn that idiot for ruining his angst time.

Axel nuzzled his cheek affectionately. "Well, I like you, Roxie."

Roxas tried to act indifferent about that statement but it was difficult to keep the smile from creeping onto his face.

"And I know you like me too." The redhead added childishly.

"Yeah yeah." The blond smiled. Only Axel could cheer him up like this.

Something wet spread across his cheek. Roxas blinked. He wasn't crying or anything so…

"That's disgusting." Roxas pushed Axel away from him with one hand, the other wiping his cheek, where Axel had licked it.

Axel grabbed both his hands and turned Roxas around so that they were facing each other. Skillfully capturing Roxas's lips with his own, he pushed Roxas down onto the soft surface of the mattress.

**_forget-me-not_**

The first thing Roxas saw when he woke up was red. Widening his eyes a bit more, he realized that he was looking at Axel's hair. The bright morning sunlight shone into the room, lighting the whole room up. He was half under Axel, whose arms were wrapped tightly around him, using him as a bolster.

Upon turning his head, he saw four pairs of curious eyes looking at him.

"GAHHH!" Roxas sat up, flipping the redhead off the bed, who landed on the floor with a thud.

Four pairs of eyes followed Axel's descent onto the floor while one pair of ocean blue eyes glared at the four people by the bed.

"Good morning." Roxas greeted as a groan of pain came from beside the bed.

"Good morning!" Two overly cheerful people, Sora and Demyx, practically yelled in his face, with grins on their own faces.

The other two, Riku and Zexion, walked over to the other side of the bed to peer down at the redhead on the ground.

"So… Roxas. What did you do last night?" Demyx's grin widened as he plopped down onto the edge of the bed.

"With Axel." Sora added, taking a seat beside Demyx.

"Nothing."

"Really?"

"Really." Roxas plucked at his still intact clothes for effect. "See? My clothes are still on. And so are his." He nodded at Axel who had somehow flopped back onto the bed and continued sleeping.

The other two sitting on his bed looked disappointed.

Roxas closed his eyes and leaned back against the headrest of the bed comfortably.

It was as 'Fourteen' said, that everything was going to be alright.

No doubt the rest of the people already know of what he was and judging by their actions, it made no difference to them. They treated him the same as they always did.

Everything was going to alright.

_Was it?_

* * *

**A/N: **Recognize a part from the game?

And there is a hint of a sequel in here. (Most likely to have a sequel)

Feel free to ask me questions if you're confused and seriously don't understand what this chapter's about, I know it is confusing. (I think I even confused myself writing this )

_- Phantom Kira_


	15. Exit

**A/N:** I'm sorry for taking so long to upload this. I was busy with the damned exams for the past few weeks.

This chapter is kind of crappy. The story might end in the next chapter. My brain's still messed up from the exams. And apparently, I failed Chinese.

The number of reviews dropped... But nevertheless, thank you:

Murd3r4lyf3

coolmegan123

Arkaham

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

reeby10

Jellybananza

* * *

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Don't. Own. It.

**Chapt 14: Exit**

* * *

On the day of Roxas's 'discharge' from the infirmary, there was a meeting between amongst DiZ and the remaining members of the Organization. Demyx, Zexion and Riku told Axel about the meeting as he made his way dazedly to the bathroom.

When he came out, the other three Organization members were gone. He thought back to what they said earlier before racing out of his room at full speed. Apparently he hadn't been paying attention to what the other Organization members were saying.

As Axel left, Sora entered the room, giving a quick wave to him as he passed by. Roxas smiled at his 'brother' as he sat down on the edge of Roxas's bed.

"So how are you feeling, Rox—" Sora was cut off as Roxas grabbed his arm and looked straight into his eyes.

"We're leaving, Sora. I want to go back."

_**forget-me-not**_

"Axel's late. Again." DiZ stated, an annoyed expression on what they could see of his face. Demyx, Zexion and Riku exchanged looks. They did tell Axel about the meeting.

The other four hooded members in the room remained silent. Then, one of them threw back her hood with a loud exaggerated sigh.

"I'm sick of waiting for that bastard." Larxene crossed her legs in front of her. "Can we just start this damned meeting? I have better things to do."

DiZ nodded curtly in her direction, not pleased by the tone of her voice but he saw that the female member had a point.

"We shall begin now."

_**forget-me-not**_

Ten minutes later, at the end of Larxene's report, the door of the meeting room burst open. All heads turned to stare at the redhead standing in the doorway.

"Er… Hi?" Axel glanced at the other Organization members, grinning uncertainly.

"You're late." DiZ informed Axel, who disappeared into a dark portal and appeared on his chair. "See me after the meeting."

To the other Organization members he said, "You're dismissed."

Flashes of swirling dark material appeared around the room as the other Organization members left their seats and the room.

When they were all gone, DiZ faced the sole member in the room.

"So." DiZ narrowed his eye, as usual, at Axel.

"Yeah." Axel leaned back into his seat. He had experienced this many times already, this conversation could take a while.

"Where have you been? Presumably in the infirmary?"

"Yeah."

"Looking after Roxas?"

"Yeah."

"You do know that you aren't allowed to fall in love with him."

"Yeah."

"Are you?"

Axel paused and thought about it.

"Yeah."

DiZ slammed his hands on the sides of his chair. "You know what is the purpose of his coming to the Element Kingdom."

Axel fell silent. He did know, after much snooping around after being given the mission of abducting Roxas.

It was to 'save their kingdom', by creating artificial beings that would replace the human citizens in the kingdom. Long years of war had greatly affected their kingdom and practically everyone was dead. At that time, Axel wasn't Axel. All the members of the Organization weren't like how they were now.

Then DiZ walked in when only slightly more than twelve of them were still surviving.

That was the day when Xemnas, their supposed leader at that time, mysteriously disappeared.

DiZ claimed to be Xemnas, but Axel didn't believe him. They were too different. The, DiZ introduced the idea of making copies of them to fill up the country.

The first few copies, which they called 'Nobodies', were failures. Each Nobody created from a different person was different, but only in appearance. They were strange creatures with no minds of their own and could be ordered around in any way, but only by who they were created from and DiZ.

One day, they finally created a Nobody who was like any other of them, a normal human. But on that same day, one of them disappeared.

Day after day, Axel noticed that another person would disappear, until finally he disappeared himself. When he woke up, he was Axel.

The purpose of Roxas was—

"Axel!" His name, shouted across the room, jolted Axel out of his thoughts.

DiZ glared at him again, apparently annoyed by the redhead spacing out across the room.

"Shouldn't we tell Roxas?" Axel said absently as he recalled what they were talking about previously.

"No."

"Why not? He has the right to know. He already knows how he was created; why not tell him what he's here for? Are you worried that he'll want to go back? He won't, all his friends there are dead. He has nothing to go back for." Axel continued on. He hadn't realized how badly he wanted Roxas to stay. It was something he hadn't felt in a long time, a lost emotion, which had disappeared along with his heart when he was created.

"If you continue to insist on telling him, I will erase you from this world."

Axel smirked, not taking DiZ seriously. "Erase me? Like what you did with all the other Nobodies? Then you're failing, DiZ. Your purpose of creating us was to increase the kingdom's population, not decrease it."

"Silence." A hiss came from the other side of the room. Something sprang out of the back of Axel's chair and wrapped around him tightly. Summoning his chakrams, he tried to slice through his binds. The weapons just passed through the dark material uselessly.

From somewhere below them, on the floor, a hooded figure stepped out from the shadows.

Axel rolled his eyes and sneered. "How melodramatic. I suppose he's here to _erase_ me."

He looked up across the room, but DiZ was gone. Looking at the unknown Organization member, he thought, _that better be Riku, Demyx or Zexion_, _if not, I'm dead._

As the hooded Organization member drew back his hood, he breathed out a sigh of relief. The dark material around Axel faded as the faint trace of a smile flickered across Zexion's normally expressionless face.

Axel leapt down easily from his seat, it wasn't very high, and landed right in front of his friend. Zexion took a step backwards and slid up his hood, hiding his face.

"Zexion? Hey thanks." Axel tried to give the other Nobody a friendly clap on the back, but Zexion moved away quickly.

"Y-yeah." Zexion said, his voice no more than a rasp.

Axel frowned at the sound of his voice, it didn't sound good. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Axel snapped a hand at his friend and yanked the hood off. It thumped soundlessly against Zexion's back.

"What the—"

Zexion stared up at Axel through an eye. The other side of his face was gone, his bangs covering a blank space in where his face should be.

"I'm disappearing. Like what happened to the rest of the Nobodies before me." Zexion rolled up his sleeves. All that was left of his arms were disconnected hands, the rest of the arm vanished. "Very soon, the whole of me will disappear, half my body's already gone."

"No way…"

"Nobodies can't live forever, we weren't meant to exist in the first place." Zexion pulled his hood back up again. "Now shut up. I don't have long before vanishing, so I'm going to spend the remainder of my very short life to help you. Roxas's gone."

Axel was dumbfounded for a moment. Then he recovered.

"What?!"

_**forget-me-not**_

"Are you sure that this will work?" Sora asked doubtfully as Roxas pulled him into a cart, its top covered with tarp.

The faint light coming through gaps in the worn tarp showed Roxas's nod. Sora shifted, trying to make himself comfortable and bumped into something. He glanced at the 'something'. It was a long and rectangular box. Something was marked on the cover of the box.

"Hey Roxas, what's this?" The brunette rapped on the wood, looking towards his 'brother'.

Roxas smiled coldly, his eyes glinting unnervingly. "A coffin."

_**forget-me-not**_

Riku secured the last horse to the cart and walked around the cart, inspecting all the equipment. Everything seemed to be in place. He headed over to the front gates and pulled a lever beside it. The only exit out of the Element kingdom swung open as Riku pulled himself up onto the driver's seat of the cart.

The wheels rattled noisily as the cart moved out of the kingdom. The sound echoed around the empty kingdom.

Somehow, Riku sensed that this would be the last time he would see his birth kingdom again.

_**forget-me-not**_

"How the hell did he disappear?" Axel yelled as the pair of them made their way out of the castle. Damn the exit for being so far away.

Zexion was a few paces behind Axel, his breathing heavy. In the process of running, his hood had flown back and was now thumping up and down with each step the Nobody took.

More of Zexion's body had disappeared. Although Axel didn't know it, the whole of Zexion's body, with the exception of his hands and half his face had disappeared. He barely had an hour to survive and he would spend it helping his friend be with Roxas.

If I can't be with the person I like, shouldn't I at least help someone else achieve that?

Finally, they reached the exit, Axel bursting through one of the two doors out of the castle. Drops of rain hit them as they passed through the doorway.

Zexion reached out a hand behind him, intending to close the door as he passed and looked back in surprise, as the wood of the door did not meet his hand.

At the end of his cloak, there was a blank space. His hand had disappeared as well. Zexion sighed. At this rate, he wouldn't even survive for half an hour.

Ah well. His time nearly was up and he knew it.

But he would help Axel till the end.

At least. Prove that even us Nobodies can be happy.

_**forget-me-not**_

Sora turned pale, dropping his hand immediately and laughing uncertainly. "A c-coffin?"

Roxas nodded, his bangs falling into his eyes at the movement. There was barely enough space to move, their space limited by the tented tarp and the coffin, which took up half of the cart.

There was silence in the cart for a moment, the only sound made by the raindrops, which began pattering on the surface of the tarp.

"W-who's? Sora croaked out. Suddenly, he didn't feel like staying in the cart any longer.

"Kairi's." Roxas replied, his voice barely more than a whisper. He looked up, blue eyes wild and gleaming. "She came here to help us escape, and she will, even in death."

_**forget-me-not**_

"Now what?"

Zexion silently pushed a stack of paper towards Axel, using his element to waterproof it.

"Roxas's escape notes." He rasped out, forcing himself to complete his sentence. "I. Found it.

With the use of his magic and his forced speech, his other hand disappeared. The dark silver-haired turned what was left of his face to the sky, feeling the raindrops slid coolly down his face.

_It won't be long now. Before I disappear._

Zexion smiled. Demyx would enjoy the downpour now. That was how he first met Demyx, when the blond was dancing in the rain like the idiot he was and Zexion was returning from a mission. Demyx would miss him when he was gone.

_I don't want to leave._

"Zexion?" Zexion turned at the sound of his name. Axel was looking seriously at him. "You're—"

Zexion couldn't hear him anymore. The pattering of the rain on the ground was gone too.

He looked down, at puddle near his nonexistent feet. It reflected his face, where he could see the blank spaces appearing. It was time.

The vanishing Nobody tried to say something, but he realized that his voice had already deserted him. A smile formed on his fading lips and he mouthed something.

_Goodbye._

A second later, all that was left of the former Nobody was a black cloak lying in the mud, shadows escaping from inside the black cloth.

_**forget-me-not**_

"Ouch!" Demyx grabbed his chest, the place where his heart should be if he had one. That place hurt, as if something inside him was being torn apart. Although he knew he didn't have a heart, he knew that if he had one, it would have disappeared in the pain he felt now.

Staggering over to his room window, he opened it carefully, letting the rain and wind blow into his room.

Phantom lips brushed his ear as the wind blew across him. He thought he heard something in the wind.

_Goodbye._

A second weaker gust of wind carried another message. Demyx strained his ears to hear it, thinking that it was a game that the rain was playing with him.

"I. Love. You?" He repeated out loud what he thought he heard.

The next gust of wind was silent and no matter how much he listened, there was nothing.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm sorry for killing Zexion off...

Should I make a side story for this pairing?

_- Phantom Kira_


	16. We go together

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for not uploading for so long! -kneels down and bangs head violently on the floor-

I had to rewrite this chapter many times, seeing that I wanted it to be great and all and leave an impact on everyone. You know, like _bang_!

But we're finally at the end of this. After 15 chapters... Wow... -dazed- After an epilogue, I'm officially done with this story. And I will try to write the Demyx side story as soon as possible.

Thanks for all your support!!:

TheAngelOfHope

aarnikotka

Arkaham

The Brilliant Idiot

coolmegan123

A-Flame-In-The-Rain

Roxas-Has-A-Stick

reeby10

Murd3r4lyf3

joannaanimelover

**Forget Me Not**

Disclaimer: Disclaimed.

**Chapt 15:** **_We go together.._**.

* * *

Roxas sighed softly, leaning comfortably against the back of the wagon. The only sounds came from the rain and the faint snoring of Sora, whose head was drooped onto his shoulder. Roxas leaned his head back, gently knocking it against the wood behind him and sighed again.

This was all messed up. Here they were on their way back to the Key kingdom, for no reason. He knew that both of them would actually be happier in the Element kingdom.

Sora liked Riku. And Roxas, well, (kind of) liked Axel. Furthermore, all their friends back in the Key kingdom were dead. There was not much reason to go back.

But somehow, something didn't feel right about the Element kingdom. During his time spent there, he didn't see anyone else except for the Organization members, a handful of scattered servants and a whole lot of those white creatures.

That was why when he heard that Riku was sending Kairi's corpse back to the Key kingdom, out of pity for the poor girl who died so far away from her home, he devised a plan. Writing it down on paper helped him form it completely.

The next, day they snuck out of the castle and hitched a ride on the wagon they were in now.

Roxas looked down at Sora. He felt a twang of pity for Sora, who didn't even know what he was doing, just blindly following Roxas, who he trusted more than his life.

_If my plan worked out well, we should be there in no time…_ he thought absently, shaking off the strange feeling of sadness that was slowly creeping up on him.

_**forget-me-not**_

Somewhere along the way, he must have fallen asleep, because when he woke up, an electronic voice was chiming "**Scanning passes. Sora. Roxas. Identity confirmed. Proceed.**"

A confused "huh?" was heard from the sliver haired driver in the front as the wagon came to a stop.

Roxas mentally cursed, he had overlooked the security system for the Key kingdom. He dug into his pocket for his pass and glared at it. The key shaped key chain with his name engraved on it shone back at him.

"Sora? Roxas?" Asked Riku incredulously as he lifted the tarp to reveal the pair.

The blond scowled and drove an elbow into Sora's ribs. Sora woke with a start. "Whaa?" He blinked drowsily at the Elemental who was staring at them reproachfully. "Oh. Hi Riku."

Settling down and closing his eyes again, he paused midway and did a comical double take. He looked back at Roxas, who merely shrugged, an irritated look on his face.

"Damn."

_**forget-me-not**_

Despite his extreme loathing for the rain, Axel was galloping across the battlefield, which connected the two kingdoms at full speed. Behind him, a limp, waterlogged cloak was strapped to the horse, its empty sleeves flapping mournfully in the wind.

"We're crossing into the Key kingdom's territory soon, Zexion!" Axel shouted to the empty cloak behind him, which flapped back at him in reply.

Straining his eyes in the rain, he caught sight of a large dark shape somewhere in the distance. (Hey, he had good eyesight.)

_That must be the wagon mentioned in Roxas's notes._ Axel glanced at the roll of waterproofed paper attached to his saddle.

He noticed something else creeping up on him at his side and flung a chakram at it. Sadly, he was unable to burn it up, due to the amount of rainwater around.

The familiar sound of a dying Heartless sounded from the direction he threw his chakram at. Riding over to retrieve his weapon, he didn't catch sight of the nearly invisible heart drift lazily out of the Heartless's fading body, headed for the large heart-shaped moon in the sky.

_**forget-me-not**_

"So what am I going to do with both of you now, eh?" Riku tapped a foot impatiently in the wet ground.

Both of the boys scowled at the Elemental before them. Ropes had been wound around their hands and bodies, binding them tightly.

"Riku!" They yelled in unison. "Let us go!"

Riku covered his ears. "I'm going deaf here, hearing the both of you scream. And no, I am not going to let you go. Even if we treated you nicely and everything, you both are still prisoners of the Element kingdom, remember?"

"Your damned kingdom is already half-dead, you idiot!" Roxas retorted sharply. "There barely anyone there to keep it alive!"

"Good observation." His voice was colder as he stared back at the blond. "That's why we had projects. That's why we created you and Namine."

"And 'Fourteenth'." Roxas added quietly, his voice not loud enough for Riku to catch what he said.

"You two were to be our only hope! We sent you both to the Key kingdom, hoping that the both of you would learn to be more like _humans_ there!" Riku shouted, his green eyes blazing under his hood.

Sora looked at him, confused. "But you are human."

"We're not. We're just 'Nobodies'." His hood fell off, revealing his face, which was normally calm and composed, twisted in sadness and anger.

In all of their emotions, none of them noticed Kingdom Hearts, high above them, glow brightly as a wayward heart joined with it.

The earth reacted to the unnatural light, breaking up under their feet. A large split in the earth snaked under them, pulling the three of them and the wagon apart.

Without thinking, Riku grabbed Sora, pulling him close to him, in a bid to protect him.

Sora, his hands tied to his body, could only watch helplessly in horror as the rising earth flung Roxas away from them.

_**forget-me-not**_

The earth rolled wildly under him, throwing him around like a rag doll. Roxas swore at Riku loudly for tying him up with the rope. With his hands bound to his body, rendering them useless, he was unable to stop himself from crashing into the ground repeatedly.

Finally after what seemed like forever, the earth shuddered to a halt.

Roxas opened his eyes, wincing as his body informed him of the cuts and bruises covering his body. Luckily, the rope around him had become somewhat looser. Wriggling out of it was not an easy job, aggravating a wound every time he moved.

Free from the rope, Roxas flung it angrily away from him and began inspecting his wounds.

"Roxas?!" A loud familiar voice shouted his name from somewhere far away from him.

Roxas spun around, searching for the person who called him. The rain beat down relentlessly around him, making it impossible for him to spot that person. Spinning around frantically didn't do much for his body either. His vision blurred as he lost his balance and crashed onto the ground again.

"Roxas!" Called the person again, a hint of urgency in his voice.

The blond opened his eyes wearily. There was a faint figure headed in his direction, a shock of bright red hair visible under a black hood.

"What the hell are you doing here—" a rumbling sound deep down in the earth interrupted Roxas. He recognized it. Another earthquake was on the way.

_**forget-me-not**_

Axel didn't know whether to call himself lucky or not. One second he was riding across the hard earth, the rain beating down on its unyielding surface, the next second he was tossed up high in the air, the ground moving like a newly awakened monster.

In any other circumstances, he would have laughed at the sight of the horse, well known for being a land creature with its four legs firmly on the ground at all times, being thrown up into the air. But this was different.

He watched in horror as the animal was slammed into an invisible barrier of some sort and slid down it, a crackling wave of energy killing it almost immediately. The cloak that belonged to his departed friend crumbled into pieces under the force of the wave.

With a shudder, Axel realized that he was heading towards that same barrier.

"Goddamnit—"

"**Scanning pass. Yuffie. Identity confirmed. Proceed.**"

Axel felt a tingle of energy pass through his body as he passed through the barrier. Confused and slightly disoriented, he landed on the ground as the earth was still again. A tinkling sound of metal hitting the wet earth made him grope blindly on the ground beside him.

His hands grasped the small key chain and he grinned. It was the same key chain he had taken from the spunky ninja girl who had tried to enter the Element kingdom.

"Thanks, kid." He whispered, pressing it against his forehead, relaxing in the feel of the cold metal on his skin.

Tucking it deep into his pocket, he got to his feet, chose a random direction to go in and headed towards chosen direction.

_**forget-me-not**_

There was something in the distance. _A human_, his mind processed as his mouth yelled, "Roxas?!"

The person responded, swaying unsteady on his feet before dropping to the ground.

That got Axel worried. Was the boy injured? Fainted?

"Roxas!" he broke into a run.

The crumpled figure moved and a reply was shouted across to him. "What the hell are you doing here—"

Roxas never did finish his sentence. The next word was drowned out by an ominous rumbling sound, followed by the breaking up of the ground beneath him. An eerie light flared out briefly from the sky as Axel was thrown up into the sky again. So was Roxas, the blond uttering a small scream, his eyes widening at something behind the redhead.

Something hard smashed into the side of his head, shaking up his vision. Now he knew what Roxas was afraid of. Axel fell back down, his body numb enough not to feel a piece of broken earth crush his leg.

As soon as he had touched the ground, the freak earthquake stopped abruptly. He saw Roxas land at almost exactly the same spot as he had been at previously. A large split in the earth separated them from each other.

"It's all gone…" The blond's voice, barely more than a whisper, was carried over to his ears as he felt the feeling, and the pain, return to his body.

He turned his head slowly to look behind him, where Roxas's eyes were fixed on a crumbling kingdom.

The Element kingdom was collapsing, chunks of it falling into the splits in the ground around it. The kingdom that had stood for centuries was finally falling, bringing down with it the people of it.

"Get your ass over!" his thoughts were disrupted by a loud scream from Roxas. No, that wasn't right. Roxas never screamed. It was always a yell, a shout or a holler, not a scream.

"Now!" Roxas's voice was a little to the hysterical side, Axel noticed dazedly. His head throbbed where the chunk of earth had hit him, his vision blurring in and out in time to the throbbing.

Footsteps sounded from across the gap in the earth, where Roxas was. The boy was walking away. _To save himself_, Axel thought thankfully and a bit sadly. _I guess even Nobodies can get injured and die like this. Alone. What a stupid way to die though…_

Suddenly, he heard a pattering sound of someone running towards him. Then it stopped. A large weight landed squarely on top of him, knocking his breath away. At the same time, he heard a painful sounding crack and a gasp come from the person on him. Hands gripped him firmly and a smaller body settled on him, lying practically on top of him.

"_You idiot_." Roxas's voice hissed into his ear, almost inaudible in the sound of the rain. "Why did you - have to go and get yourself - beaten up - so badly?"

"Well, you did too." Axel managed to smirk, which was quite an accomplishment for his current state.

"Shut up."

"Anyway, I think you broke something."

"Shut up."

"Furthermore, _you_ were supposed to run in the other direction. Back to your home."

"Shut up. I'm not leaving you."

They both laid there in silence for a while, Axel lying on his back, Roxas lying on him, his back facing the sky. The rain pattered down on their broken bodies.

The ground rumbled again. But they were too tired to move.

A piece of earth crumbled beside them. They just closed their eyes simultaneously.

Axel's hand found Roxas's and gripped it tightly; his other hand took out a key chain from his pocket and slipped off the key shaped pendant, leaving the long metal chain on its own.

Roxas looked at him questioningly as Axel wound the chain around their hands, slippery fingers clinging on to each other.

"I don't want to be separated from you." Axel merely explained, concentrating on binding them tightly.

Roxas closed his eyes and smiled.

Just as he tucked the chain's end into the coil around their hands, the next wave of earth hit them.

Their bodies were thrown up into the air, the chain the only thing holding them together.

_We go together..._

* * *

**A/N:** Epilogue's next. I know this story is _very_ confusing and all so feel free to submit all questions. I'll try my best to answer them all. And the fun part's that it's going to be from another person's POV.

I still can't believe my first ever story's over... -walks around dazedly and falls over-

_- Phantom Kira_

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End file.
